Clouded leopard population down to ‘around 750’ in key region of Borneo

October 16, 2017

A new study led by Oxford scientists has produced the first robust estimate of the number of Sunda clouded leopards remaining in the state of Sabah, Malaysian Borneo. The research also explores how changes to Sabah's forest landscape may be affecting these threatened wild cats. The study, led by researchers from Oxford’s Wildlife Conservation Research Unit (WildCRU) in collaboration ... Read full story

Dr Amy Dickman discusses how to make lions worthwhile to the people who live with them

October 5, 2017

At the Jackson Hole Film Festival, WildCRU’s Dr Amy Dickman was interviewed by Jeffrey Parrish of the Wildlife Conservation Network for their Lion Recovery Fund Facebook page. They discuss Dr Dickman’s work in Ruaha at the Ruaha Carnivore Project, and how lions need to become a net benefit to those who ... Read full story

History, as Harold Macmillan memorably, and perceptively observed, is one damn thing after another. Furthermore, its been happening for a long time. Its widespread practice, when in doubt about the provenance of a good quote, to attribute it to Churchill, who might have said that to understand the future you must understand the past, which is why, writes David Macdonald, we started to think about big cats in art through the ages

September 26, 2017

We had just finished a study of mammalian charisma and discovered that amongst 1500 modern, lap-top using English-speaking people from America to Australia, there was a significant preference for big cats. Was a similar preference apparent in different cultures at different times, and might the answer be deduced from paintings through the ages. We were ... Read full story

Bat-eared foxes and rabies

October 9, 2017

WildCRU’s roots lie close to rabies, writes David Macdonald who spent the early 1970s unraveling to social lives of red foxes in ways that permeated World Health Organisation thinking about rabies control. Subsequently that focus moved to rabies in jackals in Zimbabwe and WildCRU’s pioneering work with Ethiopian wolves is right now reaching a crescendo ... Read full story

Update on the lions of Dinder-Alatash

October 4, 2017

Last year, an expedition led by WildCRU’s Hans Bauer ‘discovered’ a lion population (http://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-35460573) in a transboundary ecosystem with two National Parks, Dinder (Sudan) and Alatash (Ethiopia). Those lions had been protected by authorities and communities for a long time; they simply went unnoticed by the international community because the area is remote ... Read full story

Himalayan wolves are special

September 21, 2017

Whose who taxonomically is vital to conservation, both in terms of preserving the full spectrum of biodiversity, and because taxonomic status (is it a species, a subspecies or a local variant) often affects an animal’s legal status. Therefore, genetics matter. That’s why WildCRU’s remarkable graduate student, Geraldine Werhahn (remarkable for her tough and tenacious trekking ... Read full story