Two new studies led by WildCRU’s Dr Andrew Loveridge, and co-authored by Professor David Macdonald, have highlighted the threat posed to lions by human activity – including trophy hunting. The first paper, published in the Journal of Applied Ecology, analysed the deaths of 206 lions in Hwange National Park, Zimbabwe – Cecil’s home – between 1999 […]
From: Stuart Gillespie’s Oxford University Science Blog: http://www.ox.ac.uk/news/science-blog/cecil-summit-another-key-milestone-lion-conservation-movement A little over a year ago, Professor David Macdonald of Oxford University’s WildCRU spoke of his desire to harness the global interest in the killing of Cecil the lion, creating a movement rather than simply a moment. That journey continues this month with the Cecil Summit, a […]
Meeting of World Leaders in Lion Conservation Convened by WildCRU and Panthera at the Recanati-Kaplan Centre in Oxford in 2016 New York, NY – Partners WildCRU and Panthera today announced that they are organizing and hosting a landmark summit for range wide lion conservation in 2016, in honour of Cecil the lion, whose death triggered […]
Professor David Macdonald, Director of WildCRU, said: ‘All those at WildCRU who work on the Hwange Lion Programme were saddened to hear of the death of Quinn Swales, a very experienced tour guide killed by a lion while leading a party of tourists on foot in the centre of Hwange. Our hearts go out to […]
We have explained to countless journalists that our study of the lion Cecil and his companions is set in a much wider context that spans several countries, but because media reports are so skimpy they seldom paint adequately this larger picture. So, here is a brief introduction (and this is the framework for the lion […]
“We have some wonderful news – a vastly talented animator, famous for his work on Disney’s The Lion King David Macdonald, Aaron Blaise, has produced a superb animation dedicated to Cecil. He will be selling prints, and donating the profits to WildCRU. Also, and it is truly wonderful, you can see the creation of the […]
Conserving big cats involves understanding the dynamics of the ecosystems that support them. Predators not only eat prey, they frighten them – thus influencing both their numbers and their behaviour. WildCRU’s long term project on lions in Zimbabwe studies the trade-off faced by prey species seeking to avoid predators but nonetheless having to visit risky […]
I am a Zimbabwean born wildlife conservationist with a mixture of both rural/urban upbringing and Shona/Ndebele cultures. Along my conservation journey I have since developed a particular soft spot for large carnivore conservation. I am a holder of a BSc Honours degree in Animal and Wildlife Sciences from Midlands State University. My conservation work took […]