Alison Cronin

Cronin was born in September 1966 as Alison Lorraine Ames in San Diego, California.^[2] She studied physical anthropology at Cambridge University. It was while she was living in the UK that she met Jim Cronin at Monkey World in 1993. They married in 1996. They were joint directors of Monkey World. After her husband died, Cronin continued running the site and working against animal smuggling and the pet trade.^[3][4]

Cronin became known through the television series Monkey Business (made by Meridian Broadcasting and shown on ITV Meridian in the UK and on Animal Planet worldwide) which has documented the frequent rescue missions and undercover investigations throughout Europe and Asia. The show began in 1998 with Monkey Business which was then replaced with Monkey Life in 2007. It covers the low and high-profile rescues, one of the most dramatic being in January 2008 when Cronin led a huge rescue of 88 Capuchin monkeys from Chile.^[5]

In 2008, Cronin led the creation of the Dao Tien Endangered Primate Rescue Centre located in Cát Tiên National Park, Southern Vietnam which is a rescue, rehabilitation, and release centre focusing on golden-cheeked gibbons, black-shanked douc langurs, silvered langurs, and pygmy loris.^[6] Cronin has written on primates as well as fought to get legislation changed to protect the primates.^[7][8]

In 2018, Cronin was awarded an honorary degree from Oxford Brookes University for her work.^[9]

• Monkey World