Luke Hunter is a conservation biologist with
the New York based Wildlife Conservation
Society where he heads their Great Cats
Program. Hunter has conducted fieldwork on
large cats in Africa since 1992, focusing on
efforts to restore species to areas of their
former range.

His doctorate examined the behavior
and ecology of reintroduced cheetahs
and lions in South Africa, and evaluated
the effectiveness of reintroduction as a tool to re-establish populations of large cats.

His current projects include assessing the effects of sport hunting and illegal persecution on leopards outside protected areas, an analysis of the conservation needs of large carnivores across continental Africa, and the first intensive study of Persian leopards and the last surviving Asiatic cheetahs in Iran.

Hunter has contributed to over 50 scientific papers and popular articles, and has written five books. He is working on his 6th book, a field guide covering all the carnivores of the world.