All that glisters is not gold, and David Macdonald explains that only a fraction of the cats living wild in Scotland are Scottish wildcats

November 9, 2015

For well over a decade we have wrestled with the problem of how to diagnose a genuine Scottish wildcat and to distinguish them from the wild-living feral cats and hybrids – indeed, hybridisation with domestic cats is thought to be one of the biggest threats facing the last wild felids in Britain. [caption id="attachment_9435" align="alignnone" width="1920"]... Read full story

David Macdonald writes from Zimbabwe, where Andy Loveridge and he are planning the next phase of fieldwork on WildCRU’s lion project

October 27, 2015

We have had a lot of enquiries recently about the well-being of Cecil’s pride and their cubs. They’ve proved a bit elusive recently, but a few days ago the team tracked them down and, as the attached photo illustrates, all was very calm. These are exciting days for the project at Hwange as we plan ... Read full story

Dr Amy Dickman features at annual Tusk lecture

October 26, 2015

Last week, WildCRU’s Dr Amy Dickman gave an inspirational talk to over 400 people at the annual Tusk American Express Conservation Lecture. The talk was held at the Royal Geographical Society in London, and was followed by an informative Q&A session chaired by Kate Silverton. The talk raised awareness of WildCRU’s Ruaha Carnivore ... Read full story

Great News from Cecil’s pride

November 9, 2015

David Macdonald reports that after a few days concern that Jericho had not been seen for a while (the same old needle-in-a-haystack problem) and hadn’t been moving, on the morning of the 3rd November our Field Coordinator Brent Staplekamp tracked him down, replete from gorging on a baby elephant that had been killed by a ... Read full story

Lions in trouble: a collaboration between WildCRU and some of the world’s leading authorities on lions suggests half of lion populations have been lost from key regions of Africa

October 27, 2015

David Macdonald explains how a WildCRU team led by Hans Bauer and including Craig Packer and himself, joined with experts from Panthera, IUCN and the Grimso research station to study trends in lion numbers. Their projections are published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America (PNAS at ... Read full story

Clouded in Mystery: David Macdonald explains how trade is a potential threat for Clouded leopard survival

October 26, 2015

Neil D’Cruze, WildCRU researcher (and Head of Policy at World Animal Protection) led a study focused on clouded leopard trade. We used information from CITES records, published literature and expert opinion to assess what impact this activity is having on the smallest Asian ‘big’ cat.  Our key finding is an apparent shift ... Read full story