Wildlife Ecology and Conservation Group
In the Anthropocene, human pressures on wildlife are reaching unprecedented levels. Animals, plants, and entire ecosystems must bear these pressures across different spatial and temporal scales. We, the members of the Wildlife Ecology and Conservation Group (WEC), study how humans influence wildlife. We examine both direct mechanisms like hunting and fire, and mechanisms that are more indirect and that are part of larger-scale processes, such as climate change.
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Mammal biodiversity shapes disease risk
To predict the spillover of pathogens from wildlife to humans and limit future pandemics, it is important to understand where wildlife disease risk is highest. A team of researchers, led by Wageningen University & Research (WUR), report that mammal biodiversity is an important mechanism driving wildlife disease risk. They identified hotspots of disease risk using the predicted distributions and abundances of more than 4,000 mammal species worldwide.
Read moreChair holder
In general, we engage in three main research lines:
- We investigate how individual animals perform and adapt in response to both anthropogenic and natural changes, and how this affects functioning, viability, and resilience from populations to ecosystems.
- We study ecological interactions and their cascading effects on processes and patterns at lower and higher levels of biological organisation.
- We identify conservation options, and we test the effectiveness of conservation interventions.
Important themes that cut across our main research lines include:
- animal movement and distributions
- population dynamics
- trophic interactions
- disease and physiology
News
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Functional Ecology Haldane prize for Yingying Wang
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Frank van Langevelde new chair of Wildlife Ecology and Conservation group
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New paper: Why climate change means a rethink of coffee and cocoa production systems.
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INREF grants funding for project “Beyond Anthropocene Pressures: convivialconservation integrating ECOlogy and ECOnomics along the Nile and its wetlands(Eco2)”.
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Sex in a world of fear: rodents produce more offspring when frightened
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Flammable floodplains are weak spot of Amazon forest
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New book: Food Production and Nature Conservation - conflicts and solutions
Selected projects
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SmartParks: using technology for anti-poaching
The Wildlife Ecology and Conservation Group, together with Welgevonden Game Reserve, MTN and IBM, is working on a new anti-poaching system (called... -
Snapshot Hoge Veluwe - Wildlife ecology with camera traps
National Park De Hoge Veluwe and Wageningen University operate a wildlife survey system that is unique in the world. Since 2013, 50-70 camera traps... -
Using technology to benefit bird conservation
Lack of knowledge is one of the factors often limiting effective species conservation. Even in this day and age fundamental knowledge on species... -
The importance of carcasses in nature
How do dead animals (i.e. “carcasses”) decompose in nature? Which nutrients are stored in the bodies of carcasses? How important is the... -
Greening the desert: What can we learn from the Chinese dryland restoration projects?
Latest publications
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Herbivore exclusion and active planting stimulate reed marsh development on a newly constructed archipelago
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Climate, topography and anthropogenic effects on desert greening : A 40-year satellite monitoring in the Tengger desert, northern China
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Collection of human and environmental data on pesticide use in Europe and Argentina : Field study protocol for the SPRINT project
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Habitat use and activity patterns of mammals and birds in relation to temperature and vegetation cover in the alpine ecosystem of southwestern china with camera‐trapping monitoring
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White-Sand Savannas Expand at the Core of the Amazon After Forest Wildfires
Latest dissertations
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Connecting divergent worlds : Social and ecological factors influence tick-borne diseases in tropical drylands
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Resilience of dry tropical rangelands : How native palms and trees mediate the effects of seasonal droughts
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Sentinel animals : Enriching artificial intelligence with wildlife ecology to guard rhinos
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Methods to improve forage quality for mammalian herbivores in nutrient poor savannas
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Unravelling networks : Causes and consequences of decreasing connectivity in bird migration pathway
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Tree seedling recruitment dynamics in forest-savanna transitions : Trait responses to vegetation controls mediate differential seedling establishment success of tree functional types
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Some species are more equal than others: phylogenetic relatedness predicts disease pressure