Lilian Carswell (16688926478)

Lilian Carswell, Southern Sea Otter Recovery Coordinator
Credit: USFWS
Lilian Carswell, Southern Sea Otter Recovery Coordinator, Ventura Fish and Wildlife Office, Ventura, Calif.
Who is your Female Conservation Hero or Mentor?
My conservation heroes include Rachel Carson, Dian Fossey, and Jane Goodall. These women observed carefully and patiently, and as a result they saw things that their fellow scientists had not seen. In addition to that, they were (and in the case of Goodall, still are) incredibly courageous—standing up not only for their ideas but for the living beings they studied.
Where did you go to school? UC- Berkeley, Columbia University, and most recently, UC- Santa Cruz
What did you study?
At UC- Berkeley, English and environmental science (BA); at Columbia, American literature (PhD), although I snuck in a few classes in conservation biology; at UC- Santa Cruz, ecology and evolutionary biology (MA)
How did you get interested in conservation?
My childhood was full of wonderful trips to national parks and other wild places, but back at home, the southern California suburbs were eating up the land. Watching that happen gave me a lot of anxiety—and I wanted to do something for the animals and plants that were being crowded out.
If you could have one incredible animal adaptation, what would it be?

I’d like to be able to detect infrasonic vibrations with my feet, like elephants do.