Daniel earned his master's degree from the University of Umeå in 2001 after studying the population dynamics of voles in northernmost Norway. Then, in 2001, he went to the Peruvian Amazon, working for a study of the Short-eared Dog at the Cocha Cashu research station for Duke University. In February 2004 he started a cycling trip from the North Cape of Europe to the southernmost point of Africa, a 31,273 kilometer (19,436 miles) trip that took two years and crossed 26 coutries. Later he also cycled from Tierra del Fuego in southern South America, passing through 8 countries and crossed the Andean mountains 7 times up to Ecuador. After a year and a half on that trip he was asked to join the Serengeti Lion Project where he now has been working as a research assistant since 2010.