Gabriela Fleury

Gabriela Fleury, or Gabri Fleury, is a conservation scientist and researcher. They primarily focus on researching methods to mitigate human-wildlife conflict in Southern Africa. Fleury is also an advocate for equity, justice, and inclusion in science.

Early life and education

Gabi Fleury was diagnosed with osteosarcoma at 7 years old. They received treatment and went through years of physical therapy and has said “My battle is one of the driving reasons that I’m so focused and passionate about what I do today, I knew I wanted to do something cool and impactful because I realized from a young age that no one is guaranteed time here.”^[1] T

Career

Fleury studies human-wildlife conflict and methods to mitigate conflict with species like cheetahs and African wild dogs. They have worked as a Human-Wildlife Conflict Research Manager at Cheetah Conservation Fund in Namibia, and a Conservation Programs Operator at the Rainforest Trust. Fleury founded Bright Frog Games in 2016, which is an independent game studio that creates environmental education games. Operation Ferdinand is a game developed under the studio that teaches livestock enclosure construction and predator identification. The game was developed to target non-literate farmers and only utilizes visuals to make the game accessible.

Research

Fleury researches human-wildlife conflict and works to find methods to mitigate conflict between carnivores and humans, particularly farmers with livestock. They have studied various methods like flashing lights to deter predators from eating livestock.^[2]

Interviews

Fleury does outreach through interviews to share scientific findings to a broader audience. They have appeared on Science Friday,^[3] The Nagging Naturalist,^[4] Nice Genes!^[5] a podcast by Genome British Columbia, and WILDLABS.^[6]

Advocacy

Fleury advocates for queer contributions to scientific research:^[7] "I feel passionate about being able to help shatter the stereotypes that you have to be high income, cisgender, heterosexual, or white to succeed in this field."

Notable publications

• Nyeema C Harris, Christine E Wilkinson, Gabriela Fleury, Zoliswa N Nhleko. Responsibility, equity, justice and inclusion, and dynamic human wildlife interactions. Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment, Volume 21, Issue 8, 2023.
• Fleury, G., Hoffman, M., & Todd, S. Land reform and its impact on the arid South African environment: Riemvasmaak as a case study. African Journal of Range & Forage Science, Volume 38, Issue 2, 2021.
• Fleury, G., Hughes, C. An Educational Video Game to Foster Coexistence: Operation Ferdinand. Carnivore Damage Prevention News, Volume 21, 2021.

Awards

Fleury was named to the Forbes 30 Under 30 list in the scientists category in 2021 and was one of only two conservation scientists included that year.^[8] Fleury was awarded a Fulbright grant in 2020 to continue their research in Botswana. In 2015, Fleury was awarded the Rotary Foundation global grant scholarship.^[9]

References