Following on his passion for what is encapsulated as Conservation Biology, Taiwo Crossby proceeded to obtain a Master Degree from the A. P. Leventis Ornithological Research Institute (APLORI), University of Jos; an institute famously known for bird science and renowned in Tropical Africa. At APLORI, he acquired relevant skills and techniques in bird and habitat conservation but with the consequence of a strong passion and interest for understanding how changes in ecological system influences the behaviour of birds and mammals. He then used wetland models to demonstrated how changes in parameters such as wetland size, isolation distance, water regime, season and time of day influence the pattern of wetland utilization by birds and mammals in Yankari Game Reserve.

After the MSc, Taiwo Crossby was immediately engaged as a Researcher Field Assistant to Dr Talatu’s project on ‘Population Size and Genetic Diversity of Nigerian Lion Panthera leo’, with chores to monitor individual lion and/or pride’s activities, and collect faecal samples used for genetic studies. From this project, he became Field Assistant to the Sex and Evolution Group at the Natural History Museum (NHM), University of Oslo (UiO), Norway. Subsequently, he gained a PhD candidateship at UiO under the Norwegian Scholarship and funding from NHM. He majored in Evolutionary Biology with specific research interest in the evolution of sperm morphology and sperm competition in birds; and in parallel to the DNA Barcoding of Afrotropical birds. His growing expertise in molecular ecology has translated to engaging and training young scholars in hand-on application of molecular methods for solving ecological problems.