The only good one is a dead one, or is it?

September 13, 2017

When I began research on red foxes in the early ‘70s, the most common refrain, whether from vet’s battling rabies, gamekeeper’s rearing pheasants or shepherds was “the only good ones a dead one”, so it's a great pleasure to find that a generation of research hints at non-lethal control actually working, writes David Macdonald in ... Read full story

Saving Ulu Muda

September 12, 2017

WildCRU is scrupulously impartial in gathering and evaluating evidence, but when that evidence points to a need for action its appropriate for us to speak out, writes David Macdonald at the launch of the Save Ulu Muda campaign. The greater Ulu Muda is a 160,000-hectare forest located at the east of the state of Kedah, in the northern ... Read full story

Dr Ximena Velez-Liendo, the Bolivian powerhouse embodiment of the Chester Zoo/WildCRU partnership, and this year’s winner of the Whitley Award, is yet again breaking down barriers, as David Macdonald reports on her remarkable achievements at the highest levels of government in Bolivia

September 11, 2017

Dr Ximena Velez-Liendo has just  presented the case for a new law to a MPs commission, which was approved (9 in favour, 1 against). Ximena’s law, as we might call it, will formally be called Ajayu’s law: the Andean bear is now part of Bolivian National Natural Heritage. It is named "Ajayu" (Spirit in Quechua), in honour of ... Read full story

Give a dog a bad name

September 12, 2017

Peoples’ perceptions of wildlife may or may not be right, but they are the basis of their actions, writes David Macdonald in reporting on a new study of predator conflict in Iran, led by WildCRU doctoral student Mohammad Farhadinia. Mohammad has led a trail-blazing study of Persian leopards, beautiful cats that share their habitat with wolves. ... Read full story

Starting young

September 11, 2017

Education may be the greatest hope for conservation, and it needs to begin when people are very young. Children’s publishers Dorling Kindersley have just published a new book on Animals, to whet the appetite of 7 year olds. The book contains a spread advising the young readers on the possibility of a career ... Read full story

New WildCRU collaboration paper on Sri Lankan leopards

September 11, 2017

WildCRU is studying leopards, and the guilds of which they are working parts, in an arc stretching up through Africa, through the Middle East, onwards through SE Asia to Java, and nowhere are they more interesting than in Sri Lanka, where a subspecies, Panthera pardus kotiya, is endangered and endemic, writes David Macdonald in celebration ... Read full story