Animal welfare depends on quality of territory not quantity.
- Professor of Wildlife Conservation, University of Salford
If zoo data was ‘open access’ we could identify the worst before too many animals die.
Good zoos should be treated like they treat their animals. That means not beating them over the odd mishap.
From football to the space race and folklore to the forest, here's why you should back the little guy.
We can’t blame a gorilla for looking after its territory. But we can ask how a child managed to get into the enclosure in the first place.
There’s a genetic side to animal welfare.
If it weren’t for Sir David’s enchanting work, this wildlife professor would probably be an accountant.
The country is fast becoming a world leader in conservation biology.
Time to salute the monkeys, dogs and ducks that went before us.
No one wants animals to suffer, but it is notoriously difficult to measure their welfare.
The BBC presenter has annoyed some charities, but he’s a well-informed insider with some good points to make.
Pandas breed in the wild after fighting off competition from other males – something they’re denied in captivity.
When it comes to choosing locations, the leaders of baboon packs take a step back.
Chimps might be cute and cuddly but it’s their human drama that obsesses us.
Lots of animals consume alcohol but only humans do it to get drunk.
Baboons shed light on the irony of social networks: cliques limit information sharing.
Social animals also have societies to run and voters to please.
The natural world throws up all kinds of beautiful creations, but many still say art is for humans.
You don’t need to kill wild animals to prove your worth.
Sniffer dogs are great at finding gorillas in thick forest – but it comes at a price.
A whistleblower from Bristol Zoo has revealed a series of unfortunate accidents involving endangered species. One involved a golden-headed lion tamarin, a small monkey native to Brazil, which fell into…
My mother died recently and at the funeral home I was asked if I had any ideas what kind of coffin she would like. For some reason I said something environmentally friendly. These words came out of my…
At a staff away day a few months ago we discussed well-being, both physical and psychological, in the workplace. I suggested, half tongue-in-cheek that we get a departmental dog – not practical on many…
I am always repeating the mantra that we should “work hard and play hard”. But is having fun professionally productive? As someone who studies animal behaviour I sometimes look to my experimental subjects…
In a rare conservation success story, research has shown that numbers of wild large carnivores in the continent have been steadily increasing and a third of the European mainland now has at least one kind…
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