Keriann McGoogan

Keriann McGoogan is passionate about primates. She holds her PhD in Biological Anthropology from the University of Toronto and her Master’s from the University of Calgary. In pursuit of primates, she has lived and worked in Belize and Madagascar. While studying howler monkeys in Belize, she spent her days in the humid, tropical forests and kayaked gorgeous (but crocodile-filled) rivers. McGoogan lived in Madagascar for nearly two years studying critically endangered lemurs. She documented the conservation threats to these primates, which are the most endangered group of animals in the world, only found in Madagascar. McGoogan’s memoir Chasing Lemurs: My Journey Into the Heart of Madagascar (2020), chronicled her first visit to Madagascar and she considers it a love letter to the amazing island nation. Her writing has also appeared in Outpost Magazine and the Toronto Star, and as part of the anthology Bad Artist: Creating in a Productivity Obsessed World (2024).

In 2021, McGoogan was selected as a Writers’ Trust Rising Star. When she’s not writing, McGoogan volunteers as a board member for Planet Madagascar, a charity that aims to conserve Madagascar’s unique biodiversity and help the local Malagasy community. Sisters of the Jungle: Women Who Shaped the Science of Wild Primates is her second book.

McGoogan lives and writes in Guelph, Ontario. For more information visit: Keriann McGoogan