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

Cecil’s pride – NoBhuhle (Beautiful)

December 22, 2015

As the Christmas holidays approach, David Macdonald has more good news from Cecil’s pride Followers of our lion study in Hwange will realise that the WildCRU team is striving to monitor the private lives of the lionesses and cubs now overseen by the aging male, Jericho, Cecil’s former coalition partner. For some time we have wanted ... 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

How wild is wilderness? David Macdonald reports on a new WildCRU paper that reflects on prey without predators (and the tangled influences of predation and the weather)

December 16, 2015

There is much about conservation in South Africa which is successful but also provocative, and one such thing is the proliferation there of relatively small fenced reserves, raising tricky questions about exactly what is wilderness and what is natural. Smaller reserves with few, or even no, large predators are an increasingly popular business model in southern Africa. ... Read full story