Adam Francis Smith

Frankfurt Zoological Society / University of Freiburg

The Eurasian lynx is a large carnivore widely distributed across Eurasia. However, our understanding of population status is heterogeneous across their range, with some populations isolated that are at risk of reduced genetic variation and a complete lack of information about others. In many European countries, Eurasian lynx are monitored through d...

Wildlife in the Anthropocene is increasingly spatially and temporally constrained by lethal and non-lethal human disturbance. For large carnivores with extensive space requirements, like wolves and Eurasian lynx, avoiding human disturbance in European landscapes is challenging when sufficient space with low disturbance is rarely available. Conseque...

Human-wildlife conflict in expanding peri-urban and urban areas is of increasing concern, as a result of growing human populations along with the associated anthropogenic footprint on wildlife habitats. Empirical data from wildlife research carried out within human dominated landscapes are key to understanding the effects of human pressures on wild...

No war has seen such cyber‐complexity as what followed the full‐scale Russian invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 and the consequential torrent of related photographic and video content shared. Some of this content inevitably features animals and wild nature in previously unseen, unique wartime situations. This creates a unique opportunity to unde...

Zoonotic diseases represent a significant societal challenge in terms of their health and economic impacts. One Health approaches to managing zoonotic diseases are becoming more prevalent, but require novel thinking, tools and cross-disciplinary collaboration. Bovine tuberculosis (bTB) is one example of a costly One Health challenge with a complex...

Human activities can induce significant behavioural changes in wildlife. Often explored through extractive interactions (e.g. hunting) that can favour certain behavioural traits, the implications of non-extractive ones, such as wildlife feeding, remain understudied. Research shows that people tend to favour bolder individuals within populations des...

The recovery and expansion of formerly isolated wolf populations in Europe raise questions about the nature of their interactions and future consequences for population viability and conservation. Will fragmented populations fuse or maintain a certain level of isolation with migration? Central Europe is suitable for obtaining empirical data in this...

Wolves (Canis lupus) are recolonising large swathes of their former European territories after a lengthy absence. This expanding distribution brings wolves to areas of naïve human communities, inflating risks to human-wildlife coexistence. As such, understanding public attitudes and perspectives to wolf return is central to supporting human-wildlif...

European wildcat (Felis silvestris) is a "Red Data Book Species" in Ukraine under strict protection. However, there is still only limited information on wildcat densities, distribution, and hybridisation. Using wildcat by-catch from camera traps, we display the locations at which wildcat were recorded during winter large carnivore monitoring in the...

Humans are a major evolutionary force on wildlife via artificial selection. While often explored through the lens of extractive interactions (e.g., hunting) able to favour certain behavioural traits over others, the implications of non-extractive ones, such as wildlife feeding, remain under-studied. Research has recently shown that people tend to f...

Humans are a major evolutionary force on wildlife via artificial selection. While often explored through the lens of extractive interactions (e.g., hunting) able to favour certain behavioural traits over others, the implications of non-extractive ones, such as wildlife feeding, remain under-studied. Research has recently shown that people tend to f...

Human populations continue to grow at an unprecedented pace, alongside the anthropogenic footprint on wildlife habitats. As a result, human-wildlife conflict in expanding peri-urban and urban areas is of increasing concern. Empirical data from wildlife research carried out within human dominated landscapes are key to understanding the effects of hu...

The conservation and management of large carnivores is a challenging task for researchers seeking to foster human-wildlife coexistence. Agent-based models (ABMs) allow researchers to design realistic simulations of their study system, including environmental, anthropogenic and ecological agents and their characteristics to examine interactions at l...

We deployed camera traps as part of the Snapshot Europe 2022 project which, using a shared methodology, has the goal of simultaneously surveying wildlife across Europe during the months of September and October each year. With nearly 100,000 photographs and more than 3000 independent events, we successfully undertook Ireland’s largest systemic came...

Background: Zoonotic diseases represent a significant societal challenge in terms of their health and economic impacts. One Health approaches to managing zoonotic diseases are becoming more prevalent, but require novel thinking, tools and cross-disciplinary collaboration. Bovine tuberculosis (bTB) is one example of a costly One Health challenge wit...

The Anthropocene continuously escalates the challenges and threats faced by large carnivores in human-dominated landscapes. Given their unique conservation and management requirements, detailed insights into their behaviour in relation to human-induced risks are crucial to designing landscapes of coexistence for people and predators, containing key...

Systematic camera trap surveys are important for gathering information on terrestrial wildlife. Such surveys reveal distributions, abundances, and behaviours that can inform conservation and wildlife management by providing evidence of animal presence at known locations and times. However, in Ireland, international-standard camera trap surveys have...

Systematic camera trap surveys are important for gathering information on terrestrial wildlife. Such surveys reveal distributions, abundances, and behaviours that can inform conservation and wildlife management by providing evidence of animal presence at known locations and times. However, in Ireland, international-standard camera trap surveys have...

Behavioural variation at the individual level has been shown to play an important role in animal ecology and evolution. Whereas most studies have focused on subadult or adult subjects, neonates have been relatively neglected, despite studies showing that neonates can exhibit consistent inter‐individual differences during early developmental stages....

Morphometric measurements in wildlife are essential data needed to link behaviour and ecology to life‐history traits. However, acquisition of such data, especially in large vertebrates, is a challenging and limiting aspect in many studies due to associated capture and handling. Ultimately, this prevents testing important hypotheses in wildlife ecol...

Photogrammetry is the acquisition of real-world measurements from photographs. We calibrated and validated photogrammetry systems for remotely measuring deer antlers, and demonstrated the high-accuracy in measuring sizes from antlers attached to skulls to emulate a free-living animal. We developed an efficient correction protocol to deal with curve...

Photogrammetry has great potential in animal ecology because it can be used to obtain measurements of animal features such as antler, horn, and body size from photographs in a remote, non-invasive fashion. Little use of photogrammetry has been made so far, however, mostly limited by the need to get sufficiently close to the target animal or have an...

Morphometric data from wild animals can assist in assessing population status by reflecting investment and behavioural ecology, allowing for improved management and conservation. Collecting morphometric data from large, wild mammals, however, is a major challenge. The intentions of this project are to overcome data collection challenges using tradi...

Ageing brings with it an assortment of challenges for any organism. Vertebrates experience an increase in age-related diseases as they grow old, and understanding age-related diseases is an important area for protecting health in the later stages of life. Cancer is the pervasive illness of advanced age, caused by the accumulation of DNA damage and...

Ageing brings with it an assortment of challenges for any organism. Vertebrates experience an increase in age-related diseases as they grow old, and understanding age-related diseases is an important area for protecting health in the later stages of life. Cancer is the pervasive illness of advanced age, caused by the accumulation of DNA damage and...