Our team
Tracy Lyten
Co-Founder
Tracy Lyten is a senior environmental leader with more than two decades of experience delivering complex programs across conservation, public land management, emergency response, biosecurity, and the renewable energy sector. She has a strong track record of leading multidisciplinary teams and delivering projects in highly regulated, high-risk, and geographically dispersed environments.
Through senior leadership roles over 16 years with Parks Victoria, Tracy has managed large teams, multi-million-dollar budgets, and concurrent infrastructure and land management projects, while coordinating diverse stakeholders including Traditional Owner groups, regulators, emergency services, contractors, and communities. Her leadership is grounded in delivery certainty, risk mitigation, regulatory compliance, and workforce wellbeing.
Tracy also brings specialist expertise to Skylos Ecology’s working dog programs. She served for six years as an operational Search & Rescue dog handler and contributed to national policy development as a member of the Australian Search Dog Framework Working Group with the Federal Attorney-General’s Department. More recently, she has delivered conservation detection dog programs across forestry, wind energy, and invasive predator management in Australia.
As Co-Director of Skylos Ecology, Tracy combines strategic oversight with practical field expertise to deliver scientifically robust, ethical, and implementable environmental solutions that support a balance of sustainable development and biodiversity protection.
Fiona Jackson
BA (Hons), MSc
Co-Founder
Fiona holds a Masters degree in International Animal Welfare, Ethics and Law from the University of Edinburgh. Fiona's interest in the use of detection dogs for environmental data collection led her to examine the behavioural effects of the dog handler on the performance levels of the trained detection dogs for her thesis paper; The effects of the detection dog handler on the performance levels of the trained detection dog.
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Fiona has clocked up thousands of hours surveying with conservation detection dogs in Victoria, New South Wales and South Australia. She has trained dogs for wind farm mortality surveys, threatened species detection and invasive species eradication.
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Previous to undertaking her Masters degree Fiona received my joint honours bachelor degree in Film & Television Studies and Philosophy at the University of Glasgow. After graduating she went on to work as a Researcher in the television industry for several years. Being a Television Researcher offered her the opportunity to marry her passions for wildlife and the creative arts by predominately working on Natural History productions for the BBC and National Geographic Channel.
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Fiona holds a Cert.III in Dog Training & Behaviour with the National Dog Trainers Federation.
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Fiona is also a member of the Australasian Conservation Dog Network (ACDN) executive committee.
Dr Stevie Florent
BSc (Hons), PhD
Head of Research
Dr Stevie Florent brings a multidisciplinary background in animal behaviour and welfare, stress physiology, conservation, and evolutionary genetics. Her broad skill set supports inter- and intra-disciplinary collaboration, rigorous research design, and effective project management across complex environmental programs.
She has collaborated with Dr Emma Bennett on several wind–wildlife projects, including Australia’s only peer-reviewed curtailment trial study, demonstrating a strong and productive research partnership. In addition to her work with Skylos Ecology, Dr Florent is a post-doctoral researcher at the University of Canterbury, where she studies bat ecology and physiology.
Her professional background also includes roles as a Research Assistant, Senior Teaching associate in undergraduate genetics, and Veterinary Nursing.
At Skylos Ecology, Stevie leads the research, planning, and implementation of new projects and service offerings. She brings extensive experience in data collection and management, critical analysis, and application of the scientific method.
Passionate about conservation and animal welfare, Stevie is dedicated to delivering scientifically robust outcomes that support practical, evidence-based environmental management.​ https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Stevie_Florent
Jesra Garcia
BSc, BA
Ecologist & Conservation Detection Dog Handler
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Jesra holds a Bachelor of Science majoring in Ecology and Conservation Biology, and a Bachelor of Arts majoring in Human Geography. Her professional background includes experience in ecosystem restoration as a nonprofit alliance facilitator, and in public education and animal husbandry, handling, and training as a native wildlife presenter and zookeeper.
In her past work in ecological consulting as a zoologist and conservation dog handler, she handled and trained detection dogs, and helped deliver on numerous renewable energy, property development, and extractive industry projects. This comprised targeted and incidental detection, monitoring, and management of species through field surveys, data collection, collation, and management, desktop assessments, and reporting and recommendations.
Jes brings to Skylos Ecology a wealth of knowledge and experience in environmental monitoring and management. As an Ecologist, Environmental Communicator and Conservation Dog Handler, she is an all-rounder who contributes to Skylos in multiple meaningful ways. Jesra also brings her two conservation detection dogs, Barkimedes and Cruise, to the team. Both dogs are experienced in bird and bat mortality detection at wind farms across Victoria​.​
Katie Copeland
Conservation Detection Dog Handler
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Katie is our newest recruit at Skylos Ecology, and we’re excited to officially welcome her into the field as she begins training as a conservation detection dog handler on our renewable energy projects.
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Katie is currently completing her Bachelor of Environmental Science and Management at Charles Sturt University . When she’s not studying, we’re thrilled to have her lending a hand, both at home and out in the field.
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Our detection dogs
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Skylos Ecology specialises in the application of conservation detection dog methodologies as a highly effective, data-driven survey tool for locating cryptic species, invasive plants, wildlife scats, carcasses and other target materials. Detection dogs use their exceptional olfactory capabilities to locate target scents at extremely low concentrations, enabling the collection of presence/absence, distribution and activity data that would be difficult or inefficient to obtain using conventional survey techniques alone. When deployed within structured survey designs, this methodology improves detection probability, increases survey coverage and enhances the reliability of ecological datasets.
Detection dog surveys are implemented using standardised protocols to ensure consistency, repeatability and defensibility of results. Survey effort, search patterns, environmental conditions and detection outcomes are systematically recorded and integrated with spatial data to support density modelling, relative abundance indices and adaptive management decisions. When combined with complementary monitoring tools such as camera traps, acoustic sensors and habitat assessments. Conservation detection dogs contribute to robust, multi-method datasets that strengthen ecological inference and support evidence-based conservation and regulatory reporting.
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At Skylos Ecology we provide highly experienced teams. Our handlers have over 20 years experience in dog training and handling and our seven conservation detection dogs are trained on a variety of animal and plant species, for both threatened species protection and invasive species​​​​​​.​​
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JIMMY
Jimmy is our superstar rescue dog. Handler Fiona rescued Jimmy when he was 15-months old. He's gone on to work on threatened species re-introduction projects, fox management projects, wild dog monitoring projects, as well as his regular wind farm surveying.
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Target Scents:
fox scat, dens and scavenge sites.
feral cat scat and scavenge sites.
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bird and bat carcasses (wind farm).
