Professor Claudio Sillero
Deputy Director
Professor of Conservation Biology
Bill Travers Fellow for Wildlife Conservation, Lady Margaret Hall
Chief Scientist, the Born Free Foundation
I was born in Argentina where I graduated as a zoologist (Universidad Nacional de La Plata 1984), and obtained my DPhil on the behavioural ecology of the Ethiopian wolf (Oxford 1994). I joined WildCRU in 1988 and currently I am responsible for its overseas projects, with an emphasis on logistics and safety to ensure our graduates and staff deliver good research and conservation practice worldwide.
I am a conservation biologist interested in threatened species, wildlife monitoring disease dynamics and protected area management, with 30 years of experience spanning four continents and working in many countries, including Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, Ethiopia, Kenya, Mongolia, Mozambique, Niger, Peru and Senegal. I have worked for Universities, NGOs, host country governments and international organizations. I am increasingly involved in the relationships between wildlife and rural communities, biodiversity conservation policy and practices, and the mitigation of conflict between wildlife and human interests.
In 1995 I founded the Ethiopian Wolf Conservation Programme and received the Whitley Award for Animal Conservation from the Royal Geographical Society in 1998 for my work in Ethiopia.
As part of a long and fruitful partnership with the Born Free Foundation I am their Chief Scientist, providing advice on conservation policy and managing a large portfolio of field projects. I have been the Chair of the IUCN Canid Specialist Group since 2004, the international body responsible for the conservation of wolves, jackals, dogs and foxes. In that role I have supported many field projects and co-edited the IUCN Canid Action Plan and a book on wild canids.
Useful links
Ethiopian Wolf Conservation Programme
People & Wildlife Initiative
The Born Free Foundation
The IUCN Canid Specialist Group
Project literature for Sahara Carnivores research
Selected Publications
A full list of publications can be found here
Creel, S., … Sillero-Zubiri, C., … et al. 2013. Conserving large populations of lions – the argument for fences has holes. Ecology Letters
Dhanwatey, H.S., J.C. Crawford, L.A.S. Abade, P.H. Dhanwatey, C.K. Nielsen and Sillero-Zubiri, C. 2013. Large carnivore attacks on humans in central India: a case study from the Tadoba-Andhari Tiger Reserve. Oryx 47:221-227.
Durant, S.M., … Sillero-Zubiri, C. et al. 2013 Fiddling in biodiversity hotspots while deserts burn? Collapse of the Sahara’s megafauna. Diversity & Distributions 1-9
Gottelli, D., Sillero-Zubiri, C., Marino, J., Funk, S.M., and Wang, J. 2013. Genetic structure and patterns of gene flow among populations of the endangered Ethiopian wolf. Animal Conservation 16:234-247
Marino, J., Sillero-Zubiri, C., Johnson, P.J., and Macdonald, D.W. 2013. The fall and rise of Ethiopian wolves: a natural experiment on the regulation of populations of social carnivores. Animal Conservation 16:621-632
van Kesteren F., Paris M., Macdonald D.W., Millar R., Argaw K., Johnson P.J., Farstad W. and Sillero-Zubiri C. 2013. The physiology of cooperative breeding in a rare social canid; sex, suppression and pseudopregnancy in female Ethiopian wolves. Physiology & Behavior 122:39-45.
Marino, J., Sillero-Zubiri, C., Johnson, P.J., and Macdonald, D.W. 2012. Ecological bases of philopatry and cooperation in Ethiopian wolves. Behavioural Ecology and Sociobiology 16: 621–632. doi:10.1007/s00265-012-1348-x
van Kesteren, F., Sillero-Zubiri, C., Millar, R., Argaw, K., Macdonald, D.W. and Paris, M. 2012. Sex, stress and social status: Patterns in fecal testosterone and glucocorticoid metabolites in male Ethiopian wolves. General and Comparative Endocrinology 179:30-37.
Rueness, E.K., Gulbrandsen Asmyhr, M., Sillero-Zubiri, C., Macdonald, D.W., Bekele, A., Atickem, A., and Stenseth, N.C. 2011. The cryptic African wolf: Canis aureus lupaster is not a golden jackal. PLoS ONE 6(1):e16385.
Marino, J., Bennett, M., Cossios, D., Iriarte, A., Lucherini, M., Pliscoff, P., Sillero-Zubiri, C., Villalba, L., and Walker, S. 2010. Modeling rare species: conservation implications of bioclimatic constrains to Andean cat distribution. Biodiversity and Distributions 17:311-322.
Hoffmann, M., … Sillero-Zubiri, C…. et al. 2010. The impact of conservation on the status of the world’s vertebrates. Science 330:1503-1509.
Sillero-Zubiri, C. 2009. The Canidae. In: Wilson, D. and R Mittermeier (Ed). The Handbook of the Mammals of the World Vol 1. Carnivora, Lynx Edicions, Barcelona.
Schipper, J. … Sillero-Zubiri, C…. et al. 2008. The status of the world’s land and marine mammals: diversity, threat, and knowledge. Science 322:225-230.
Haydon, D.T., Randall, D.A., Matthews, L., Knobel, D.L., Tallents, L.A., Gravenor, M.B., Williams, S.D., Pollinger, J.P., Cleaveland, S., Woolhouse, M.E.J., Sillero-Zubiri, C., Marino, J., Macdonald, D.W. and Laurenson, M.K. 2006. Low-coverage vaccination strategies for the conservation of endangered species. Nature 443:692-695.
Marino, J., Sillero-Zubiri, C. and Macdonald, D.W. 2006. Trends, dynamics and resilience of an Ethiopian wolf population. Animal Conservation 9:49-58.
Randall, D.A., S.D. Williams, I.V. Kuzmin, C.E. Rupprecht; L.A. Tallents, Z. Tefera, K. Argaw, F. Shiferaw, D.L. Knobel, C. Sillero-Zubiri, and M.K. Laurenson. 2004. Rabies in endangered Ethiopian wolves. Emerging Infectious Diseases 10:2214-2217.
Sillero-Zubiri, C., M. Hoffmann, and D.W. Macdonald (Eds.). 2004. Canids: foxes, wolves, jackals and dogs: status survey and conservation action plan, second edition. IUCN Canid Specialist Group, Gland, Switzerland and Cambridge, UK.
Macdonald, D.W., and C. Sillero-Zubiri (Eds.). 2004. The biology and conservation of wild canids. Oxford University Press, Oxford.
Sillero-Zubiri, C., and D.W. Macdonald (Eds.). 1997. The Ethiopian wolf: status survey and conservation action plan. IUCN The World Conservation Union. Gland, Switzerland. 123 p.
Sillero-Zubiri, C., D. Gottelli, and D.W. Macdonald. 1996. Male philopatry, extra-pack copulations and inbreeding avoidance in Ethiopian wolves Canis simensis. Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology, 38:331-340.