Professor John E Cooper, who has had a lifelong interest in natural history, trained as a veterinary surgeon (veterinarian) and is now a British and European Specialist in Veterinary Pathology and Diplomate of the European College of Zoological Medicine, working with wildlife and exotic species. He and his wife have spent approximately twenty years living overseas, mainly in Africa and the West Indies. He is the author or co-author of many scientific papers on comparative medicine and tropical diseases and of several books, including Wildlife Forensic Investigation: Principles and Practice (Taylor & Francis, 2013) and Gorilla Pathology and Health, With a Catalogue of Preserved Materials (Academic Press, Elsevier, 2017).

Professor Charles Foster is a Fellow of Exeter College, Oxford, a member of the Law Faculty at the University of Oxford, a practising barrister and a qualified veterinary surgeon. He read veterinary medicine and law at the University of Cambridge and worked on the chemical immobilisation of gazelles and (with John Cooper) the comparative anatomy of the Himalayan hispid hare. His PhD in medical law and ethics is from the University of Cambridge. As a barrister he has been involved in many of the leading cases in medical law. His books include the New York Times Bestseller Being a Beast (2016) (which won the IgNobel Prize for Biology), Being a Human (2021), The Screaming Sky (2021), Cry of the Wild (2023) and The Edges of the World (2026). A complete list of publications is at www.charlesfoster.co.uk

Mrs Margaret E Cooper is a British solicitor (not in private practice). She has taught and published on animal and conservation law and, with her husband, continues to promote an interdisciplinary approach to veterinary education, wildlife conservation and forensic science, both in the UK and overseas. In 2019 she was elected as an Honorary Fellow of both The Faculty of Forensic & Legal Medicine (FFLM) of The Royal College of Physicians and the Royal College of Pathologists for her contributions to forensic medicine and overseas training respectively.