January 2017 Ruaha Carnivore Project update

February 6, 2017

The January update for the Ruaha Carnivore Project, run by WildCRU's Dr Amy Dickman is now available. RCP Update, PDF (1.4 MB)

David Macdonald explains how the WildCRU’s long-term study of lions and the people living alongside them in Hwange NP, and the team led by Andrew Loveridge, has revealed how predator ecology and animal husbandry combine to explain patterns of livestock losses

January 30, 2017

What determines where, when and how lions, or other large carnivores, attack domestic livestock? WildCRU’s newest study in Zimbabwe reveals that cattle with bells fitted were more vulnerable to being attacked than those without (bells help a herd to stick together and herdsman to locate the herd, but it seems they also help the ... Read full story

David Macdonald celebrates a coalition of conservationists that has drawn attention to the urgency of saving the world¹s mega-fauna

January 26, 2017

A group of us, many of whom have been working together over our professional lifetimes, was led by Professor Bill Ripple in writing an article entitled 'Saving the World's Terrestrial Megafauna'. Mega-fauna are carnivores weighing over 15 kilograms, and herbivores weighing over 100 kilograms, whose numbers include some of the world's most iconic species, including gorillas, ... Read full story

Mrs Tiggywinkle may be endearing and popular, but she and her ilk are in trouble. David Macdonald reports how WildCRU researchers, together with colleagues from Aberdeen, have explored the cost of living for a modern farmland hedgehog

February 2, 2017

Our team, led by Dr Carly Pettett, sought to understand the decline in hedgehog numbers, and why it has seemingly been most severe in rural areas. Previously, and working on a grant from the Peoples’ Trust for Endangered Species and the British Hedgehog Preservation Society,, Carly had demonstrated that arable land is typically under-selected by ... Read full story

Annual update of the Mara Cheetah Project

January 26, 2017

WildCRU’s Dr Femke Broekhuis has been directing the Mara Cheetah Project since 2013 and despite local pressures, the Maasai Mara is still considered to be part of one the most important cheetah populations globally. The two biggest threats facing cheetahs are interconnected; habitat loss and human-wildlife conflict, both of which are of increasing concern in ... Read full story

Egyptian lions, manes and climate change – David Macdonald presents a podcast from Oxford Ashmolean Museum

January 23, 2017

In a brilliant initiative from Director of the Ashmolean Museum, Xa Sturgis, ten of Oxford University’s top academics were invited to prepare podcasts based on their perspective of a favourite item in the collection. The items, and the experts, are fascinating. For example, Professor Sarah Harper chose a mummified child, Professor Helen Watanabe-O'Kelly chose the ... Read full story