Outside Antarctica, he was also an expert on the large African mammals. In 1960, he was appointed Director of the Nuffield Unit of Tropical Animal Ecology in Uganda. Over the next eight years, his research focused on hippopotamus and elephant ecology. Laws spent a year as Director of the Tsavo Research Project in Kenya (1967–68).[5] Needing data from 300 dead elephants, Laws' research at Tsavo involved the slaughter of 300 wild elephants, which were taken from one herd. He then asked for a similar number to be killed in each of the nine remaining Tsavo herds. Protests led by David Sheldrick resulted in the denial of this request and the subsequent winding up Laws' research.[6]
Laws returned to Cambridge in 1968 to resume his Antarctic research. In 1969, he became Head of the Life Sciences Division of the British Antarctic Survey. He succeeded Vivian Fuchs as BAS Director in 1973, a post he held until retirement in May 1987.[5]
On his retirement, a fund was established for a prize to be awarded in recognition of the achievements of outstanding young scientists of the Survey.[9] The Laws Prize continues to be awarded annually, with the fund administered by the BAS Club.
^Tamm, Vali, ed. (2003). "Laws, Richard Maitland 1926–". The Houghton Mifflin Dictionary of Biography. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company. p. 903. ISBN061825210X. Retrieved 5 November 2012.