Dr Marc Pierard

Marc supports education of students in veterinary and bioveterinary sciences regarding applied ethology and animal welfare science. This includes teaching on scientific methods to conduct and evaluate scientific research. He is the module leader for Research in Bioveterinary Sciences and supervises student research projects. He also conducts research on methods in animal behaviour and on handling and training of animals.

Marc has a diversified experience. He has been a civil servant for the Belgian government for 18 years, working on the interactions between zoning, environmental and conservation policies. He has also been part of field projects on a number of species: bonobos in Democratic Republic of Congo, mountain gorillas in Rwanda, African elephants in South Africa, African wild dogs in Zimbabwe, oryx antelopes in Senegal, Echo parakeets in Mauritius and spider monkeys in Bolivia. Between 2007 and 2014, he was the vice-president of Elephant Experts, an NGO delivering education to elephant trainers in Nepal on evidence-based training and management of elephants with an emphasis on elephant welfare and human safety. For that project, he was part of 3 field trips, delivering education on elephant biology and practical demonstrations of evidence-based training of young elephants.

Marc is a former council member of the International Society for Equitation Science. His research on horses includes work with horses of the mounted section of the Belgian federal police, a study on social behaviour in group-housed horses and the development of a reliable reference ethogram for horses.

He is a regular guest lecturer at educational institutions internationally. He is often asked for interviews in a range of media. He has been a scientific expert on horse welfare in multiple working groups of Belgian councils for animal welfare. He has been an external member of the ethics committee within the research division of a Belgian pharmaceutical company.