Young Conservationist of the Year Award 2020

16/02/2021 in RZSS

The Royal Zoological Society of Scotland (RZSS) has recently announced the winner of their Young Conservationist of the Year Award (YCOTY) 2020. Elif Yildirim, from Edinburgh, won the wildlife conservation charity’s award in February for showing passion, enthusiasm and commitment to the natural world.

Elif, who now studies ecology at the University of Stirling, took park in RZSS’s Zoo Environment Behavioural Research Award (ZEBRA) programme, which runs for 15 weeks and gives students the opportunity to earn valuable insight into conservation, biology and wider sciences. She was praised for her positive and productive contribution to her ZEBRA team, and for taking part in an observational study investigating the behaviour of Qabid and Sanjay, Edinburgh Zoo's greater one-horned rhinos.