Originally from the Netherlands, where he obtained his M.Sc. (1999, Wageningen University) and Ph.D. (2006, University of Groningen) degrees, he has lived and worked around the world since 2008, including long periods in Poland, Norway, Sweden and South Africa. He studies the ecology of large mammals and their role in the functioning of ecosystems and his research spans diverse disciplines such as trophic ecology, behavioral ecology, plant-animal interactions, predator-prey dynamics and community ecology. As a savanna ecologist, with over 16 years of experience in South African savanna systems, he also studies European temperate and boreal ecosystems through ‘savanna glasses’.