Julia Panfylova

Julia was born in Donetsk, an industrial city in the East of Ukraine. From early childhood, she has been expressing an unusual empathy to all living things. Her curiosity about the natural world encouraged her to study biology in her hometown. After graduation she worked in an NGO on projects such as Enviroschools and waste minimisation, and wrote articles in a local newspaper on environmental education.

When Julia started her Master of Science in Conservation Biology in New Zealand, she was shocked by the level of cruelty toward introduced animals and disrespect of their lives. With no doubt, as a Conservation biologist, she understood how fragile the Island ecosystem was and that without management it would have no chance to restore, but she didn’t agree with the approach that justified this cruelty. This is when the idea for her first book Lada and the Fox (as yet unpublished) was born.

Lada and the Fox is Julia’s manifestation of kindness towards all animals and an encouragement of changing attitudes to introduced animals. A widespread assumption that introduced animals are inherently bad makes it easier to kill them. Julia believes that accepting that animals’ behaviour is not defined by their choice but rather by nature will make killing more uncomfortable, which will lead to development of new innovative ways to manage the unique New Zealand environment.

After completing her masters, she published two research articles in peer reviewed journals, on managing threatened populations (unfortunately there is no place for sentiments in the academic writing and those articles don’t communicate the idea of kindness towards all animals).
Despite her success in science, Julia wasn’t able to work as a conservation biologist in New Zealand as it would have involved hurting animals and other living things.

Julia has a YouTube channel, with over 33,000 followers, that provides meditations and relaxing experiences through ASMR (Autonomous Sensory Meridian Response). See www.youtube.com/c/NanaFox. Her Instagram account has 1200 followers and is steadily growing, follow her on @nana.foxnz
           
 
   
Publications:
Panfylova, J., Bemelmans, E., Devine, C., Frost, P., & Armstrong, D. (2016). Post‐release effects on reintroduced populations of hihi. The Journal of Wildlife Management, 80(6), 970-977.
Panfylova, J., Ewen, J. G., & Armstrong, D. P. (2019). Making structured decisions for reintroduced populations in the face of uncertainty. Conservation Science and Practice, 1(10), e90.
Панфилова Ю. В. Чи сміється птах хixi? (укр.) // Лук’янчук З., Громова К. Птах : квартальный журнал. — Київ: Українське товариство охорони птахів, 2014. — Т. 4. — С. 14—18.