WildCRU News 2010-08-01T06:42:56+01:00 Copyright (c) 2009, wildcru tag:wildcru.co.uk,2010-08-01T06:42:56+01:00 The Biology and Conservation of Wild Felids 2010-07-07 12:37:53 The Biology and Conservation of Wild Felids edited by David Macdonald and Andrew Loveridge was published recently.

The editors utilize their 50 years of combined experience in professional engagement with the behaviour and ecology of wild felids to draw together a unique network of the world's most respected and knowledgeable experts. For the first time, this inter-disciplinary research programme is brought together within a single volume. Beginning with a complete account of all 36 felid species, there follow 8 comprehensive review chapters that span all the topics most relevant to felid conservation science, including evolution and systematics, felid form and function, genetic applications, behavioural ecology, management of species that come into conflict with people and control of international trade in felid species, conservation tools/techniques, ex situ management, and felid diseases. 19 detailed case studies then delve deeply into syntheses of the very best species investigations worldwide, written by all the leading figures in the field. These chapters portray the unique attributes of the wild felids, describe their fascinating (and conflicting) relationship with humans, and create an unparalleled platform for future research and conservation measures. A final chapter analyses the requirements of, and inter-disciplinary approaches to, practical conservation with cutting-edge examples of conservation science and action that go far beyond the cat family.

  • Paperback: 736 pages
  • Publisher: OUP Oxford (3 Jun 2010)
  • Language English
  • ISBN-10: 0199234450
  • ISBN-13: 978-0199234455

 Professor Macdonald to be awarded a CBE 2010-06-14 17:06:35 It is with immense pride that we announce that our founder and director: Professor David Macdonald is to be made a Commander of the British Empire (CBE) for services to natural sciences. He credited the group as a whole with the achievement commenting to the Witney Gazette:

 "I think it’s a wonderful honour and feel that the honour is in two parts.  One part is to draw attention to the importance of the subject of wildlife conservation, and the other is to give recognition to the wonderful team of people that I have built up and with whom I work."

 "The wonderful team", think perhaps that he earned it quite justly on his own two feet.

David’s honour was listed in the 2010 Queens birthday honours. The full list of honours from the 2010 Queens birthday can be found here: http://www.direct.gov.uk/en/Nl1/Newsroom/DG_188464

A press release describing the work which earned David his CBE can be downloaded here.

N.B. it took your web editor some time to find the appropriate order of precedence for abbreviates and initials of Rank, Honour and Degree. A very handy list can be found here: http://www.justice.gov.uk/guidance/foa-hons-and-decs.htm

 Dr Susan Cheyne talks about conservation science in the Indonesian Rainforest. 2010-04-15 11:50:49 Susan, was interviewed on Jo Thoenes Radio Oxford show on the 14th of April 2010. Susan was discussing her conservation work in Borneo:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/p0077xh0/Jo_Thoenes_14_04_2010/
(1:18 on the iPlayer clock, probably only accessible in the U.K.)

On the 15th of April Susan gave a talk on her work in Borneo at Science Oxford with Oxford student Klara Wanelik.
The talk is now online here.
 Darwin Initiative grant to develop felid conservation in China 2010-04-10 03:54:26 WildCRU in collaboration with Beijing Forestry University have been awarded a grant from the UK Government’s Darwin Initiative to develop capacity within China for the conservation of their wild cats. China may hold 13 of the world’s 37 species of wild felid, the majority of which are of conservation concern. China represents a significant part of the global range of many felid species, and one species (Chinese mountain cat) and several subspecies are endemic making it one of the most important countries for felid conservation.

Led my Dr Philip Riordan (WildCRU) and Dr Shi Kun (BFU), the project will build a network to bring together national and international groups working on cats both in China and in neighbouring states. With the Chinese State Forestry Administration and the support of provincial governments, we will identify training and other capacity needs within the country and develop regional programmes to develop skills within protected areas. 12th Wolf Day in Dinsho 2010-03-23 12:32:22 On the 7th of March the skies above Dinsho, Ethiopia remained dry for the 12th annual Wolf Day.

This annual festival of sports and culture is organised by the Ethiopian Wolf Programme to celebrate the Ethiopian Wolf and the afroplane.

Despite the blue skies the brave footballers took to a rather sodden pitch which your reporter can only feel would be fine practice for the Finnish Swamp Football Competitions (link). If a sponsor were found to take them out there your reporter is certain the Ethiopian team would be victorious :). The ECWP v Dinsho derby resulted in a 1-0 victory for Dinsho.

For further details of the day you can read the EWCP  blog.
 Science article questioning CITES petition for ivory sale 2010-03-12 09:57:58 In an article published today (12/03/10) in "Science", a group of conservationists question petitions from Tanzania and Zambia to the 15th meeting of CITES that would allow them to sell off their ivory stock piles. WildCRU members Jonathan Kingdon, David Macdonald and Katarzyna Nowak were amongst the co-authors of the article which suggests that such one off sales provide an incentive to poach.

The letter raises amongst other issues: the paucity of monitoring facilities to indicate whether or not such a sale would encourage further poaching; and the evidence to show that policing of ivory poaching and trafficking in both the source and consumer countries (China and Japan) may not have been sufficient. In order for the petition to be upheld it would be necessary for existing policing to be shown to be sufficient and for assurances to be provided that the trade would not further harm elephant populations.

The full text of the article can be found here.
 WilcdCRU student competes in the<br /> Winter Olympics 2010-02-12 13:46:13 Tucker Murphy's day job concerns puma research for his doctorate. But on Friday the 12th he's proudly flying the Bermudan flag into the Vancouver Olympics. He is competing in the 15km cross country skiing event on Monday the 15th of February.
Needless to say we are all very proud. Claudio interviewed on Mongabay 2009-11-09 15:58:51 Claudio gave an interview in November 2009 with Mongabay on his life and work with the Ethiopian Wolf Project. You can read the full interview here. Deer-awareness campaign for road users 2009-09-25 14:22:37 A new campaign was launched on the 22nd of September by a partnership, including Oxford University scientists, to highlight the danger posed by wild deer crossing Britain's roads and help avoid potentially fatal road accidents involving deer.

DeerAware is an initiative led by the Highways Agency and The Deer Initiative that aims to raise public awareness of the up to 74,000 deer-vehicle collisions that occur every year in the UK. Many people are killed or injured in such collisions and many deer are either killed instantly or die later from injuries sustained in a collision.

The campaign begins today with a special launch event in Richmond Park.

'It's not just that the number of deer is increasing. We really need drivers to slow down and watch out, particularly when deer are more active - in autumn and spring, and at dawn and dusk,' said Professor David Macdonald of Oxford University's Wildlife Conservation Research Unit (WildCRU), chair of the deer-vehicle awareness working group. 'This autumn there is likely to be another rise in deer-vehicle collisions.'

Getting drivers to slow down and watch out when they see deer signs is the key to reducing the number and severity of road accidents involving deer. DeerAware aims to change driver behaviour and give more information to help local initiatives reduce collisions in collision 'hotspots' across the country.

Professor Macdonald said: 'Today's event brings together the media and other partners who we hope will use the DeerAware material to tackle the worst hotspots. As is so often the case in wildlife conservation, the campaign will be beneficial not only for deer but for people too – the quest for such win-win outcomes is at the heart of modern conservation.'

More information and advice is available on the Highways Agency website.

[text from Oxford University site]

 Official Diploma Opening and Tubney House Dedication 2009-09-11 14:20:32

The 7th August 2009 saw the official launch of a new diploma and new facilities at Oxford University’s Wildlife Conservation Research Unit (WildCRU), strengthening its mission to achieve practical solutions to the global wildlife conservation and environmental challenges of the 21st Century.

Both the Diploma and the new facilities have been funded by Thomas Kaplan and his wife Daphne Recanati Kaplan, founders of the charitable foundation Panthera. In recognition of their support WildCRU’s base has been renamed The Recanati-Kaplan Centre.

The new Postgraduate Diploma in International Wildlife Conservation Practice is intended to give students the practical skills and theoretical understanding to contribute to conservation efforts in developing countries. The Diploma is delivered by WildCRU with support from Oxford’s Department for Continuing Education.

Members of the five-strong pilot group of Diploma students, known as the ’WildCRU Panthers’, have already begun putting what they learnt into practice by, for instance, establishing a research station to monitor the Andean cat in Bolivia, working with WWF in China to save the Amur tiger, mitigating the effects of man-eating lions in Tanzania, and looking to do further research on the Persian leopard.

After running a successful four-month pilot course last year, the first eight formal Diploma students – the 2009 WildCRU Panthers – started in April this year and will look to apply what they learn to conservation challenges within their own countries.

The WildCRU Panthers come from countries as far away as Bolivia, Zimbabwe and Bhutan, so the barns and stables at WildCRU’s Tubney House HQ have been converted into the Panthera Buildings, providing residential accommodation for students to stay in Oxford for the duration of the course from April to October each year. In keeping with WildCRU’s conservation objectives, the work was undertaken with the University Estates Directorate; the local construction company, Beard; and architects from the Frankham Consultancy (Oxford) Limited, delivering an environmentally-friendly building with a minimal energy footprint.

Summer Newsletter available here 2009-09-11 14:02:06

For more news WildCRU’s summer newsletter can be downloaded here.


 Tigers have more weighing on their mind than lions 2009-09-04 10:37:28 A wide-ranging study of big cat skulls, led by Oxford University scientists, has shown that tigers have bigger brains, relative to their body size, than lions, leopards or jaguars.

The team investigated the relationship between the skull size – the longest length between the front and back parts of the skull – of a large sample of tigers, lions, leopards and jaguars and the volume inside the cats’ respective craniums. The researchers report their findings in this month’s Biological Journal of the Linnean Society.

'What we had not expected is that the tiger has clearly much bigger relative brain size than do the other three species, which all have similar relative brain sizes,’ said Dr Nobby Yamaguchi of Oxford University’s Wildlife Conservation Research Unit (WildCRU), an author of the report with WildCRU Director Professor David Macdonald.

’When we compare the two biggest species, on average the lion has a bigger skull than the tiger based on the greatest length of the skull. However, the tiger has bigger cranial volume than the lion. It is truly amazing that tiny female Balinese tiger skulls have cranial volumes as large as those of huge male southern African lion skulls.’

It has sometimes been assumed that social species, such as lions, should have larger brains than solitary species, such as tigers, because of the need to handle a more complex social life within groups or prides. However, despite a few studies suggesting a relationship between big brains and sociality in mammals, evidence for the link is far from clear.

Dr Nobby Yamaguchi said: ’Our results strongly suggest that there is no detectable positive relationship between relative brain size and sociality amongst these four big cat species, which shared a common ancestor around 3.7 million years ago.’

The team also looked at the popular idea that tigers are ’bigger’ than lions (which could mean that the tiger’s relatively bigger brain size simply reflects its bigger body). However, careful re-evaluation of original field data and relatively well-documented hunting records does not support this idea.

So the team concluded that the tigers have a relatively bigger brain (around 16 per cent larger) than lions, given their very similar average body sizes. 

Professor Macdonald said: ’Two general lessons emerge from our findings: first, how much remains to be discovered about even these most familiar of big cats, and second how important museum collections can be as a source of unexpected insights.’

The next step for the researchers is to try to answer whether such a difference can be explained by intrageneric variation or merely by chance. If not by chance, then it raises the question why the tiger evolved a relatively bigger brain (or why other species evolved smaller brains) after the tiger’s ancestor split from the common ancestor to the other three species.

The answers to both these questions may lie in analysing comparative brain anatomy amongst these species (for instance, which parts of the tiger’s brain are bigger than the lion’s) and similar data from extinct relatives of these big cats as well as smaller living relatives such as the snow leopard and clouded leopard.

(link to the paper here)

 WildCRU in The Times 2009-07-13 16:16:12

WildCRU's work in the U.K. was recently highlighted in The Sunday Times. It refers to work detailed in the 2009 State of Britain's Mammals. The full piece can be found here.

 

 Tigers took the silk route 2009-06-01 10:17:55 DNA from an extinct sub-species of tiger has revealed that the ancestors of modern tigers migrated through the heart of China – along what would later become known as ’the Silk Road’ – a team of scientists from Oxford University and the NCI Laboratory of Genomic Diversity in the USA report.
In a study published in PLoS One the team show that the Caspian tiger from Central Asia, which became extinct in 1970, was almost identical to the living Siberian, or Amur, tigers found in the Russian Far East today.

The discovery not only sheds new light on how the animals reached Central Asia and Russia but also opens up the intriguing possibility that conservationists might repopulate tiger-less Central Asia with Siberian tigers from Russia or China.

’What these striking results indicate is that extinct Caspian tigers and modern Siberian tigers are molecular nearest neighbours,’ said Carlos Driscoll, a doctoral student studying at Oxford University’s Wildlife Research Conservation Unit (the WildCRU) who led the study. ’In a sense it means that Caspian tigers never became extinct, it’s just that there never was any such thing as a ’Siberian’ tiger.’ The relationship is so close that the mitochondrial DNA of the two sub-species differs by just a single nucleotide.

Because Caspian tigers were not well studied before they became extinct almost 40 years ago the team had to retrieve DNA from specimens held in the region’s museums.

’We had to travel through Russia and Central Asia taking tiny bone samples from Caspian tiger specimens in natural history collections,’ said co-author Dr Nobby Yamaguchi of Oxford’s WildCRU. ’We then compared the mitochondrial DNA from these samples with those taken from living animals, especially Siberian and Indian tigers.’

The route that Caspian tigers took to get to Central Asia has always been a puzzle because Central Asian tigers seemed isolated from other populations by the massive Tibetan plateau. The new research suggests that rather than skirting around the plateau, via India to the south or Siberia to the north, perhaps about 10,000 years ago ancient tigers went through it along China’s narrow Gansu Corridor – which would thousands of years later form part of ’the Silk Road’ trading route.

This fresh look at the tiger family tree suggests that the South China tiger, a sub-species now extinct in the wild, is unique – possibly the cat most closely resembling the ancestor of all modern tigers – making efforts to save it from extinction all the more important.

’We came very close to losing the chance to study the South China tiger, even from a molecular standpoint, simply because it is so rare,’ commented Carlos Driscoll. ’Hopefully our findings will encourage the Chinese government to focus conservation efforts on this most endangered of living tigers.’

Professor David Macdonald, Director of the WildCRU at Oxford University and also one of the authors said: ’The fact that the Caspian tiger was driven extinct in 1970 is an indictment of the modern age and not some long-gone piece of history. Our research indicates that the Caspian tiger’s genes still exist, in the form of the Siberian tiger, so they could be restored to Central Asia. This restoration would obviously be a huge undertaking but what a triumph it would be!’

NOTES

’Mitochondrial Phylogeography Illuminates the Origin of the Extinct Caspian Tiger and Its Relationship to the Amur Tiger’ is published in PLoS One and will be available at: http://dx.plos.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0004125

The main tiger sub-species studied were the Caspian tiger (Panthera tigris virgata), the Siberian tiger (Panthera tigris altaica), the Indian – Bengal – tiger (Panthera tigris tigris) and the South China tiger (Panthera tigris amoyensis). The Caspian tiger was found to differ by only one nucleotide of its mitochondrial DNA from the Siberian tiger: other tiger sub-species differ by at least two nucleotides.


 Our First Diploma Students Arrive 2009-05-04 17:27:03 In May 2009 the first students arrived to take part in WildCRU’s Diploma in "International Wildlife Conservation and Practice". Based at Tubney this course aims to provide theoretical knowledge and practical skills applicable to biodiversity conservation in developing countries. This diploma was made possible by a generous donation from Panthera.

Alfredo Romero Muño, Antony Kasanga, Godfrey Mtare, Hemanta Kafley, Herizo Andrianandrasana, Karma Jigme, and Nakedi Maputla willd spend the next few months living at Tubney studying for this postgraduate qualification. Each of these students has come from an existing conservation project in their own countries and will return to those projects with the skills gained here.

To learn more about the course click on the courses link above.
 Snow Leopards in Taxkurgan China 2009-04-24 16:52:33 Khometti Taklashur, one of the local members of the expedition surveying for snow leopards in the Mariang Valley in the Taxkurgan Nature Reserve in China set the camera the captured this snow leopard.

The Xinjiang Snow Leopard Project (XSLP) is an initiative started by the Beijing Forestry University and the Wildlife Conservation Research Unit (WildCRU) at Oxford University. Working closely with the Xinjiang Government and local communities we are undertaking a responsive research programme, to assess the current status of snow leopards and their prey within the Taxkurgan area of West Xinjiang. We are using this basic information to determine current threats and devise mitigation strategies for policy makers to safeguard this unique ecosystem and its species.

Visit the project’s site here .

 Hedgerow trees ’key to UK biodiversity’ 2009-04-08 23:16:28

Paying farmers to protect and establish more hedgerow trees could be crucial to halting the decline in biodiversity in the British landscape, Oxford University scientists have found.

listen to Thomas on Farming Today:

The team focused on larger moths – many of them spectacularly beautiful – as an important indicator of biodiversity, recording the number and diversity of 270 species of moths on 16 arable farms across Oxfordshire. 

What they found was that whilst wide field margins – for which farmers are already financially rewarded – are beneficial for moth populations, hedgerow trees had an even greater impact: in some landscapes boosting moth numbers by 60 per cent and their species diversity by 38 per cent. 

A report of the research appears in the April edition of the journal Agriculture, Ecosystems and Environment.

Our results suggest that the shelter provided by hedgerow trees is probably the main reason for their beneficial effects on moth numbers and diversity ’Our results suggest that the shelter provided by hedgerow trees is probably the main reason for their beneficial effects on moth numbers and diversity,’ said Dr Thomas Merckx of Oxford University’s Wildlife Conservation Research Unit (the WildCRU) the lead author of the report.

 

’They create a sheltered microclimate for individual moths and may act as ’stepping stones’ enabling moths and other insects to cross open agricultural spaces. This could make hedgerow trees even more important in the future for British and European biodiversity, since they may mitigate some negative effects of climate change by allowing species to move northwards in response to climate change, even through agricultural landscapes.’

Currently the restoration and management of wide field margins is financially rewarded in the EU but there are no such incentives for farmers to manage hedgerow trees. 

Dr Merckx said: ’What our research shows is that, if we are to preserve the biodiversity of agricultural landscapes in Britian and Europe, we have to think bigger than measures relating to individual fields and individual species, and examine what we can do to strengthen the diversity within landscapes and ecosystems as a whole.’ 

Professor David Macdonald, founding Director of the WildCRU, who led the Oxford University team that collaborated with the charity Butterfly Conservation, said: ’We got the best results where we targeted farmers to join agri-environment schemes, probably because this resulted in the joining up of good habitat across the landscape.’

Professor Macdonald added, ’nowadays, the taxpayer pays farmers as custodians of biodiversity in the countryside. It’s important that these agri-environment payments deliver the sort of countryside that the public wants, and our research is intended to provide the evidence policy-makers need.’

The research was funded by the Esmee Fairbairn Foundation, and is part of the WildCRU’s wider programme of studying how to conserve wildlife on farms in the Upper Thames Valley, research which spans water voles to otters, damsel flies to badgers and harvest mice to fish. 

Professor Macdonald said: ’With the moth results in hand, our next step is to test the effects on the bats that feed on them – the idea of the Upper Thames project is to explore links between farming and the whole food web on farmland.’

 David in Independent’s top 100 environmentalists 2008-10-06 11:18:25 In October 2008 The Independent newspaper’s top 100 environmentalists in the UK. Their panel of expert judges put David at number 28. See the entry here.

Though we would probably disagree with the writer’s suggestion that the quangos David sits on are boring.  The web editor also wonders if K.T. Tunstall has really done enough to find herself in 10th position. Surely Radiohead’s decision not to tour anymore at all and to angle towards mostly online sales is a good thing? Plus they’re a better band. Best not to get too involved in these things I suppose! Race to save the rarest wolf 2008-08-24 11:40:00 The Ethiopian Wolf Project's work to protect the wolves against rabies was featured on the BBC website. You can read the full story here:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/7715693.stm David elected fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh 2008-03-26 16:52:13 David was elected a fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh in March 2008.

To learn more about the Royal Society of Edinburgh click here.