WildCRU launches new conservation technology initiative

February 9, 2021

David Macdonald is excited to announce WildCRU’s role in launching the World’s First Conservation Venture Studio. This is a partnership between the University of Oxford, Global Accelerated Ventures, and the research commercialisation arm of the University, Oxford University Innovation. The Conservation Venture Studio will  rapidly accelerate novel technologies and innovative solutions addressing the world’s most ... Read full story

Spotting elephants from space: a satellite revolution

December 27, 2020

The population of African elephants (Loxodonta africana) has plummeted over the last century due to poaching, retaliatory killing from crop raiding and habitat fragmentation. To conserve them requires knowledge of where they are, and how many there are: accurate monitoring is vital. Existing methods are prone to error. Inaccurate counts lead to misallocation of scarce conservation resources and misunderstanding population trends. Currently ... Read full story

An in-depth insight into the roosting behaviour of bats

December 10, 2020

Our recently published study in the Journal of Zoology has provided a novel and detailed insight into the summer roosting behaviour of three bat species native to the UK. We used a long-term comparative dataset of individually tagged bats across multiple bat box monitoring schemes in south-west England, including our own long-term study in ... Read full story

WildCRU’s Iding Haidir meets Director General of Natural Resources and Ecosystem Conservation, Indonesian Ministry of Environment and Forestry

February 3, 2021

A double success in Indonesia, writes WildCRU Director, David Macdonald: after six years of fruitful fieldwork on our clouded leopard and tiger project in Sumatra, Iding Haidir recently returned home, doctoral thesis complete, to enjoy the honour of being greeted by Mr Wiratno, the Director General of Natural Resources and Ecosystem Conservation of the Indonesian ... Read full story

Cecil’s Legacy – 5 years on

December 21, 2020

Lion numbers have disappeared from 92% of their historical range. The death of Cecil the lion and the resulting global outcry brought this sobering fact into sharp focus. Cecil was first fitted with a GPS satellite collar in November 2008 when he was between five and six years old. He was a male lion coming ... Read full story

Supporting Citizen Scientists

December 8, 2020

A partnership between WildCRU and the charity Butterfly Conservation, funded by Oxford University’s Public Engagement with Research Seed Fund, is helping to find out more about the impact of digital communications on citizen science research. Citizen science has tremendous potential for engaging the public in research and for generating valuable data. One scheme, the ... Read full story