The Wildlife Conservation Research Unit
The planet’s human population increases by more than 200,000 people every day. This exerts ever more severe and intensifying pressure on finite natural resources throughout the world. The resulting environmental degradation, biodiversity loss and climate change destroys nature and impacts human well-being. The mission of the Wildlife Conservation Research Unit (WildCRU) is to achieve practical solutions to conservation problems through original scientific research. Our research is used worldwide to advise environmental policy-makers. The need for our efforts is greater than ever.
Part of the University of Oxford’s Department of Zoology, WildCRU is a pioneering, inter-disciplinary research unit in a world-class academic centre. We underpin solutions to conservation problems through primary scientific research of the highest calibre. Our approach is empirical, interdisciplinary and collaborative, seeking to include all four elements of our “Conservation Quartet” research to understand and address the problem; education to explain it; community involvement to ensure participation and acceptance; and implementation of long-term solutions.
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News
History, as Harold Macmillan memorably, and perceptively observed, is one damn thing after another. Furthermore, its been happening for a long time. Its widespread practice, when in doubt about the provenance of a good quote, to attribute it to Churchill, who might have said that to understand the future you must understand the past, which is why, writes David Macdonald, we started to think about big cats in art through the ages
September 26, 2017
We had just finished a study of mammalian charisma and discovered that amongst 1500 modern, lap-top using English-speaking people from America to Australia, there was a significant preference ... Read full story
Himalayan wolves are special
September 21, 2017
Whose who taxonomically is vital to conservation, both in terms of preserving the full spectrum of biodiversity, and because taxonomic status (is it a species, a subspecies or ... Read full story
Can lawyers save lions?
September 13, 2017
WildCRU’s approach is essentially inter-disciplinary, as vividly illustrated by our new collaboration with international lawyers. It’s hard to imagine a more charismatic mammal – emblazoned on football shirts, ... Read full story