Dr. Robert M. Johnson III

Robert M. Johnson is a teaching associate in the Biology Department, School of Science, at Coastal Carolina University, Conway, SC. For nearly 30 years, he has worked hands on with apex predators and endangered species both in captive environments and native “wild” habitats. For 20 years, he has worked directly with community groups and grass-roots conservation projects in Thailand, Borneo, and Sumatra, and throughout much of southern and central Africa. His wildlife conservation work includes equipping and training various anti-poaching units, mitigating human/wildlife conflict, and empowering local villagers to understand and protect their own natural resources.

Robert completed undergraduate work at Coastal Carolina University, as well as a concurrent MS, Ph.D. program in psychology from California Coast University, specializing in animal behavior. Graduate research included analysis of behavioral needs of wide-ranging terrestrial carnivores in captive environments, effectively to increase understanding and provide better care and enrichment for animals in a zoological setting. Over the decades, Robert has worked with film crews from Discovery Channel, Animal Planet, National Geographic, Weather Channel, Rolling Stone, NBC, CBS, and more.

Robert is an avid outdoorsman, feeling as at home in the bushveld of South Africa with a rhino antipoaching unit as in a classroom full of university students. He is a master falconer, and has spent much of the past twenty years in the company of raptors flying free through the forests. He currently resides in Myrtle Beach, SC.