Chris Sutherland

University of St Andrews · School of Mathematics and Statistics

Camera traps offer enormous new opportunities in ecological studies, but current automated image analysis methods often lack the contextual richness needed to support impactful conservation outcomes. Here we present an integrated approach that combines deep learning-based vision and language models to improve ecological reporting using data from ca...

Camera traps offer enormous new opportunities in ecological studies, but current automated image analysis methods often lack the contextual richness needed to support impactful conservation outcomes. Here we present an integrated approach that combines deep learning-based vision and language models to improve ecological reporting using data from ca...

For a budding ecologist, comprehending vast datasets—temperature readings, population counts, and ecosystem measurements—may seem insurmountable without the right tools and training. Ecologists understanding data is akin to detectives solving a mystery. Just as Sherlock Holmes needs a magnifying glass to conduct his work, ecologists need statistics...

The multi-species occupancy model of Rota et al. (2016) is widely applied for inferences about interactions in the occurrence of different species, but convergence and estimation issues under realistic sample sizes are common. We conducted a simulation study to evaluate the ability to recover co-occurrence estimates using standard and penalised lik...

Characterizing the population density of species is a central interest in ecology. Eastern North America is the global hotspot for biodiversity of plethodontid salamanders, an inconspicuous component of terrestrial vertebrate communities, and among the most widespread is the eastern red-backed salamander, Plethodon cinereus. Previous work suggests...

Spatial capture‐recapture (SCR) models provide estimates of animal density from spatially referenced encounter data and has become the most widely adopted approach for estimating density. Despite the rapid growth in the development and application of spatial capture‐recapture methods, approaches for assessing model fit have received very little att...

Aim The assembly of species into communities and ecoregions is the result of interacting factors that affect plant and animal distribution and abundance at biogeographic scales. Here, we empirically derive ecoregions for mammals to test whether human disturbance has become more important than climate and habitat resources in structuring communities...

Compound effects of anthropogenic disturbances on wildlife emerge through a complex network of direct responses and species interactions. Land‐use changes driven by energy and forestry industries are known to disrupt predator–prey dynamics in boreal ecosystems, yet how these disturbance effects propagate across mammal communities remains uncertain....

The recovery of mammalian predators of conservation concern in Europe is a success story, but their impact on some prey species of conservation concern may cause conservation dilemmas. This calls for effective intervention strategies that mitigate predator impacts without compromising their recovery. We evaluated diversionary feeding as a managemen...

The continuous growth of the global human population results in increased use and change of landscapes, with infrastructures like transportation or energy facilities being a particular risk to large carnivores. Environmental impact assessments were established to identify the probable environmental consequences of any new proposed project, find way...

The social system of animals involves a complex interplay between physiology, natural history, and the environment. Long relied upon discrete categorizations of “social” and “solitary” inhibit our capacity to understand species and their interactions with the world around them. Here, we use a globally distributed camera trapping dataset to test the...

Fierce international debates rage over whether trophy hunting is socially acceptable, especially when people from the Global North hunt well-known animals in sub-Saharan Africa. We used an online vignette experiment to investigate public perceptions of the acceptability of trophy hunting in sub-Saharan Africa among people who live in urban areas of...

The recovery of mammalian predators of conservation concern in Europe is a success story, but their impact on some prey species of conservation concern may cause conservation dilemmas. This calls for effective intervention strategies that mitigate predator impacts without compromising their recovery. We evaluated diversionary feeding as a managemen...

The various debates around model selection paradigms are important, but in lieu of a consensus, there is a demonstrable need for a deeper appreciation of existing approaches, at least among the end-users of statistics and model selection tools. In the ecological literature, the Akaike information criterion (AIC) dominates model selection practices,...

Many organisms live in fragmented populations, which has profound consequences on the dynamics of associated parasites. Metapopulation theory offers a canonical framework for predicting the effects of fragmentation on spatiotemporal host–parasite dynamics. However, empirical studies of parasites in classical metapopulations remain rare, particularl...

Populations along geographical range limits are often exposed to unsuitable climate and low resource availability relative to core populations. As such, there has been a renewed focus on understanding the factors that determine range limits to better predict how species will respond to global change. Using recent theory on range limits and classica...

Birds are important indicators for monitoring both biodiversity and habitat health; they also play a crucial role in ecosystem management. Declines in bird populations can result in reduced ecosystem services, including seed dispersal, pollination and pest control. Accurate and long-term monitoring of birds to identify species of concern while meas...

Birds are important indicators for monitoring both biodiversity and habitat health; they also play a crucial role in ecosystem management. Decline in bird populations can result in reduced eco-system services, including seed dispersal, pollination and pest control. Accurate and long-term monitoring of birds to identify species of concern while meas...

Dusty and gritty areas are known to be a valuable resource for many bird species, with dust bathing providing parasite removal, cleaning, and preening (Olsson and Keeling, 2005, Downs, Bredin and Wragg, 2019). Making these sites a suitable focal point for camera trap deployment, similar to how forest tracks are often used for predator camera trappi...

Many species' distributions are being impacted by the acceleration of climate change. Amphibians in particular serve numerous ecosystem functions and are useful indi- cators of environmental change. Understanding how their distributions have been impacted by climate change and will continue to be impacted is thus important to overall ecosystem heal...

Few topics in wildlife conservation are as controversial, emotive, or command as much public and political attention, as trophy hunting. International discourses regarding trophy hunting are characterised by radically contradictory assertions, ranging from claims that trophy hunting is a humane and socially acceptable wildlife management tool which...

Determining what factors influence the distribution and abundance of wildlife populations is crucial for implementing effective conservation and management actions. Yet, for species with dynamic seasonal, sex-, and age-specific spatial ecology, like the diamondback terrapin (Malaclemys terrapin; DBT), doing so can be challenging. Moreover, environm...

Abstract Carnivore intraguild dynamics depend on a complex interplay of environmental affinities and interspecific interactions. Context‐dependency is commonly expected with varying suites of interacting species and environmental conditions but seldom empirically described. In South Africa, decentralized approaches to conservation and the resulting...

Determining what factors influence the distribution and abundance of wildlife populations is crucial for implementing effective conservation and management actions. Yet, for species with dynamic seasonal, sex-, and age-specific spatial ecology, like the diamondback terrapin (Malaclemys terrapin; DBT), doing so can be challenging. Moreover, environm...

The status, size, and density of Malaclemys terrapin (Diamondback Terrapin) populations along the Atlantic coast have been reported by most states as unknown or declining. Robust demographic or population data are lacking, with even less information available on their spatial ecology. Spatial capturerecapture (SCR) methods explicitly incorporate sp...

Connectivity is a fundamental concept linking dispersal to the emergent dynamics and persistence of spatially structured populations. Functional measures of connectivity typically seek to integrate aspects of landscape structure and animal movement to describe ecologically meaningful connectedness at the landscape and population scale. Despite this...

Context Identifying factors driving patterns of species communities in heterogenous human-dominated landscapes remains elusive despite extensive research. Biodiversity is thought to decrease with habitat modification, as sensitive species are lost. Conversely, diversity has also been shown increase at moderate levels of landscape modification where...

Aim Identifying the mechanisms influencing species' distributions is critical for accurate climate change forecasts. However, current approaches are limited by correlative models that cannot distinguish between direct and indirect effects. Location New Hampshire and Vermont, USA. Methods Using causal and correlational models and new theory on ran...

Adversity early in life can shape the reproductive potential of individuals through negative effects on health and life span. However, long-lived populations with multiple reproductive events may present alternative life history strategies to optimize reproductive schedules and compensate for shorter life spans. Here, we quantify the effects of maj...

Ongoing recovery of native predators has the potential to alter species interactions , with community and ecosystem wide implications. We estimated the co-occurrence of three species of conservation and management interest from a multi-species citizen science camera trap survey. We demonstrate fundamental differences in novel and coevolved predator...

Theory on intraguild killing (IGK) is central to mammalian carnivore community ecology and top‐down ecosystem regulation. Yet, the cryptic nature of IGK hinders empirical evaluations. Using a novel data source – online photographs of interspecific aggression between African carnivores – we revisited existing predictions about the extent and drivers...

Human modification and habitat fragmentation significantly impact large carnivores requiring large, connected habitats to persist in a landscape. Understanding species responses to such change and the protection of critical areas and connectivity they provide is essential when planning effective conservation strategies. Our study examines the spati...

Ecological processes are strongly shaped by human landscape modification, and understanding the reciprocal relationship between ecosystems and modified landscapes is critical for informed conservation. Single axis measures of spatial heterogeneity proliferate in the contemporary gradient ecology literature, though they are unlikely to capture the c...

Understanding how broad‐scale patterns in animal populations emerge from individual‐level processes is an enduring challenge in ecology that requires investigation at multiple scales and perspectives. Complementary to this need for diverse approaches is the recent focus on integrated modeling in statistical ecology. Population‐level processes repre...

Tropical ecosystems are expected to experience climate warming, with predicted increases in drying and heat extremes in the coming years. Understanding how these changes will affect terrestrial vertebrates such as amphibians is limited. The Tropical Responses to Altered Climate Experiment (TRACE) in the Luquillo Experimental Forest in northeastern...

Understanding the mechanisms by which similar species coexist in sympatry is a major driver of ecological research. Niche partitioning and ecological plasticity can facilitate spatial and habitat use overlap between generalist and specialist species. Mouse lemurs (Microcebus spp.) are a highly speciose group of small primates that are endemic to th...

A principal challenge impeding strong inference in analyses of wild populations is the lack of robust and long‐term data sets. Recent advancements in analytical tools used in wildlife science may increase our ability to integrate smaller data sets and enhance the statistical power of population estimates. One such advancement, the development of sp...

Adversity early in life can shape the reproductive potential of individuals through negative effects on health and lifespan. However, long-lived populations with multiple reproductive events may present alternative life history strategies to optimize reproductive schedules and compensate for shorter lifespans when experiencing adversities early in...

Understanding the mechanisms by which similar species coexist in sympatry is a major driver of ecological research. Niche partitioning and ecological plasticity can facilitate spatial and habitat use overlap between generalist and specialist species. Mouse lemurs (Microcebus spp.) are a highly speciose group of small primates that are endemic to th...

Context: Identifying factors driving patterns of species communities in heterogenous human-dominated landscapes remains elusive despite extensive research. Biodiversity is thought to decrease with habitat modification, as sensitive species are lost. Conversely, diversity has also been shown increase at moderate levels of landscape modification wher...

Connectivity is a central concept in ecology, wildlife management, and conservation science. Understanding the role of connectivity in determining species persistence is increasingly important in the face of escalating anthropogenic impacts on climate and habitat. These connectivity augmenting processes can severely impact species distributions and...

The simultaneous development of technology (e.g. camera traps) and statistical methods, particularly spatially capture–recapture (SCR), has improved monitoring of large mammals in recent years. SCR estimates are known to be sensitive to sampling design, yet existing recommendations about trap spacing and coverage are often not achieved, particularl...

With the accelerating pace of global change, it is imperative that we obtain rapid inventories of the status and distribution of wildlife for ecological inferences and conservation planning. To address this challenge, we launched the SNAPSHOT USA project, a collaborative survey of terrestrial wildlife populations using camera traps across the Unite...

Ecological processes are strongly shaped by human landscape modification, and understanding the reciprocal relationship between ecosystems and modified landscapes is critical for informed conservation. Single axis measures of spatial heterogeneity proliferate in the contemporary gradient ecology literature, though they are unlikely to capture the c...

Salamanders represent exceptional indicators for understanding environmental change and forest degradation. Coverboards, a type of artificial cover object, have become a popular tool for censusing salamanders given their low cost of installation and lack of danger to the environment and animals. Previous work has suggested that a variety of factors...

Apex predator reintroductions have proliferated across southern Africa, yet their ecological effects and proposed umbrella benefits of associated management lack empirical evaluations. Despite a rich theory on top-down ecosystem regulation via mesopredator suppression, a knowledge gap exists relating to the influence of lions (Panthera leo) over Af...

Aim In the face of global change, understanding causes of range limits are one of the most pressing needs in biogeography and ecology. A prevailing hypothesis is that abiotic stress forms cold (upper latitude/altitude) limits, whereas biotic interactions create warm (lower) limits. A new framework – Interactive Range‐Limit Theory (iRLT) – asserts t...

Spatial capture–recapture (SCR) has emerged as the industry standard for estimating population density by leveraging information from spatial locations of repeat encounters of individuals. The precision of density estimates depends fundamentally on the number and spatial configuration of traps. Despite this knowledge, existing sampling design recom...

An estimated 10 million families, individuals, trusts, and estates own 39 percent of the forestland in the United States, excluding interior Alaska. Using segmented regression, the relationships between size of forest holdings and the attitudes and behaviors of these family forest ownerships were tested using data from the 2018 iteration of the USD...

Understanding the influence of spatiotemporal variation in environmental factors on phenology is crucial for determining the effects of climate change on amphibian populations. Here we quantify the relative influence of temperature and precipitation on surface activity of a terrestrial salamander, the Eastern Red-Backed Salamander (Plethodon cinere...

1. Spatial capture-recapture (SCR) methods use the location of detectors (camera traps, hair snares, live-capture traps) and the locations at which animals were detected (their spatial capture histories) to estimate animal density. Despite the often large expense and effort involved in placing detectors in a landscape, there has been relatively lit...

The state of an ecosystem is governed by dynamic biotic and abiotic processes, which can only be partially observed. Costs associated with measuring each component limit the feasibility of comprehensive assessments of target ecosystems. Instead, indicator species are recommended as a surrogate index. While this is an attractive concept, indicator s...

Conservation efforts in South Africa play out across multi‐use landscapes where formal protected areas coexist with private wildlife business (ecotourism and/or hunting) in a human‐dominated matrix. Despite the persistence of highly diverse carnivore guilds, management idiosyncrasies are often orientated towards charismatic large predators and asse...

PAWS aims to produce a robust estimate of the snow leopard’s population status

Bed bugs have re‐established themselves as a common household pest in the United States and pose significant public health and economic concerns, particularly in urban areas. Documenting the scale of the bed bug resurgence and identifying the underlying predictors of the spatial patterns of their incidence is challenging, largely because available...

Whitebark pine (Pinus albicaulis), a keystone species and an obligate mutualist of the Clark’s nutcracker (Nucifraga columbiana), is rapidly declining throughout its range. Evidence suggests this decline is leading to a downward trend in local nutcracker populations, which would in-turn decrease whitebark pine regeneration. Our objectives were to (...

Spatial capture-recapture (SCR) has emerged as the industry standard for analyzing observational data to estimate population size by leveraging information from spatial locations of repeat encounters of individuals. The resulting precision of density estimates depends fundamentally on the number and spatial configuration of traps. Despite this know...

Abundance and density are vital metrics for assessing a species’ conservation status and for developing effective management strategies. Remote‐sensing cameras are being used increasingly as part of citizen science projects to monitor wildlife, but current methodologies to monitor densities pose challenges when animals are not individually recogniz...

Environmental DNA (eDNA) metabarcoding has revolutionized biomonitoring in both marine and freshwater ecosystems. However, for semi‐aquatic and terrestrial animals, the application of this technique remains relatively untested. We first assess the efficiency of eDNA metabarcoding in detecting semi‐aquatic and terrestrial mammals in natural lotic ec...

Assessing trends in abundance and density of species of conservation concern is vital to inform conservation and management strategies. The remaining population of the cheetah (Acinonyx jubatus) largely exists outside of protected areas, where they are often in conflict with humans. Despite this, the population status and dynamics of cheetah outsid...

Wildlife tunnels are often installed under busy roads to help a variety of animals, from small frogs to bears, safely cross roads that bisect their habitats. One of the first roadway wildlife tunnel systems designed specifically for amphibian use in the USA was installed along Henry Street in Amherst, Massachusetts, in 1987 to protect spotted salam...