Rich Bergl
Dr. Rich Bergl was named Acting Deputy Director and Chief Mission Officer at the North Carolina Zoo in 2024 and has been involved with wildlife conservation and research in Africa for almost 20 years. Much of his work has focused on the Cross River gorilla (Gorilla gorilla diehli), the most endangered of the four gorilla subspecies. He has worked in Nigeria, Cameroon, Uganda, Liberia, Rwanda, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Tanzania, Namibia and Kenya on topics ranging from primate behavior, to population genetics, to protected area management. He is one of the founding members of the SMART Partnership and is currently involved with implementing SMART to improve anti-poaching efforts at sites across Africa. Dr. Bergl is a member of the Executive Committee of the IUCN/SSC Primate Specialist Group and the Scientific Commission of the UNEP/UNESCO Great Ape Survival Partnership, serves on the Field Conservation and Research and Technology Committees of the Association of Zoos and Aquariums, and is a Conservation Fellow at the Wildlife Conservation Society. He is adjunct faculty in the Department of Evolutionary Anthropology at Duke University.