WildCRU researchers discover new Ethiopian lion population

February 1, 2016

WildCRU’s Dr Hans Bauer, a conservation biologist based in Addis Ababa, recently returned from an expedition to the remote Alatash National Park in West Ethiopia, where he confirmed the presence of lions. With many African lion populations now gone or expected to disappear within the next few decades this is an ... Read full story

Cheering news from Cecil’s pride – David Macdonald reports that Jericho has cubs

January 18, 2016

These are frantically busy days for us in Oxford as Andy Loveridge and I plan the future of our Hwange-Okavango lion project at a time when so much is changing for lion conservation – much of it stimulated by Cecil. So, for us, it was a delight to get cheering news from the field where ... Read full story

New research led by Sandra Baker assesses welfare impacts in wildlife management

January 7, 2016

Human-wildlife conflict is a global issue and, where people try to manage this conflict, any impacts on animal welfare should be minimised where possible. However opinions on impacts vary widely so impacts need to be assessed objectively for decision-making purposes. We used a welfare assessment model, devised by Trudy Sharp and Glen Saunders, to differentiate ... Read full story

New African Wildlife Foundation app highlights conservation work

January 20, 2016

One of WildCRU’s partners, the African Wildlife Foundation, has teamed up with Steller to showcase conservation stories in a new app, which combines photos, video and text. The result is an engaging digital narrative which highlights vital conservation work. Some of the most popular Steller stories in its first week were WildCRU projects, especially ones ... Read full story

Bubye Valley Conservancy

January 18, 2016

We have been asked whether WildCRU is involved in a proposal by the Bubye Valley Conservancy and Martin Nel Safaris to raffle a lion either to be hunted as a trophy or to be radio-collared by their researchers.  We were completely unaware of the initiative and are not party to it. We have been asked whether ... Read full story

Carnivore hunting policy does not always align with science: a new paper published in the journal Science concludes that policies regulating the hunting of large carnivores do not always align with basic scientific data

January 5, 2016

David Macdonald comments on one example ‘Current policies for wolf hunting in the Northern Rockies do not specify a target population size, a maximum number killed or a desired rate of population growth. Beyond avoiding a decline that would provoke re-listing under the Endangered Species Act, the goals of current policy are not clearly defined.’ The ... Read full story