The Wildlife Conservation Research Unit
The planet’s human population increases by more than 200,000 people every day. At the same time, global consumption and inequality are rising. As a result, our planetary footprint is unsustainable, with 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.
Video narrated by Prof David Macdonald. Created by, and used with the kind permission of United for Wildlife: www.unitedforwildlife.org/
News
Towards coexistence: can people’s attitudes explain their willingness to live with Sumatran elephants in Indonesia?
September 21, 2021
by Ardiantiano
Elephants can inflict substantial costs on the people who live alongside them. Human-elephant interactions can be complex. While the ecological and practical aspects of this interaction ... Read full story
Temporal partitioning and spatiotemporal avoidance among large carnivores in a human-impacted African landscape
September 16, 2021
Africa’s large carnivores are increasingly under threat from habitat fragmentation, conflict with humans, and declining prey populations. In addition to directly impacting survival, these pressures are likely to ... Read full story
Julius Bright Ross finds remarkable diversity in badger energy budgeting through his DPhil research
September 15, 2021
The pace and scale of climate change in the twenty-first century, while disastrous in conjunction with other forms of human-induced rapid environmental change, is not out of the ... Read full story