Craig Stanford, Ph.D.

Craig is internationally renowned for his work on animal behavior and ecology. He is a Professor of Biological Sciences and Anthropology at USC and a Research Associate in Herpetology at the Los Angeles County Natural History Museum. Craig has conducted extensive field research on primates, particularly the great apes, and also on tortoises. He is best known for his research on chimpanzee hunting and meat eating, done in collaboration with his mentor Jane Goodall. In 2004, Stanford became involved in turtle and tortoise conservation in Myanmar and Thailand. He has mentored and supervised students working with Burmese Black Mountain Tortoises (Manouria emys), Impressed Tortoises (Manouria impressa), Pancake Tortoises (Malacochersus tornieri) as well as with Turtle Conservancy's flagship species, the Ploughshare Tortoise. Since 2017 he has been engaged in field research and conservation in the Cuatro Cienegas Valley of northern Mexico.

Craig has authored 17 scientific and popular award-winning books and more than 150 scholarly and popular articles on animal behavior and human nature. His forthcoming book The Turtle Crisis, examines the global threats to the future of the most critically endangered turtles and tortoises.