Matt W Hayward

The University of Newcastle, Australia · School of Environmental and Life Sciences

The status of many amphibian populations remains unclear due to undetected declines driven by disease and difficulties in obtaining accurate population estimates. Here, we used genetic data (Single Nucleotide Polymorphisms) to investigate Australia’s poorly understood Littlejohn’s treefrog , Litoria littlejohni across its fragmented distribution. W...

Investigating how the population density of a species changes over time is an integral step in determining whether that species is stable or needs assistance from conservation managers. The short-eared possum (Trichosurus caninus) is a species that has been poorly studied with only one previous population density estimate. Short-eared possums were...

Most natural ecosystems contain animals feeding on many different types of food, but it is difficult to predict what will be eaten when food availabilities change. We present a method that estimates food preference over many study sites, even when number of food types vary widely from site to site. Sampling variation is estimated using bootstrappin...

Ongoing global changes can lead to the expansion of species' geographical range. Exploring the drivers of the successful ongoing expansion of the golden jackal across Europe is essential to understand the species' trophic ecology. We analysed which climatic and environmental factors affected the dietary composition of golden jackals and compared th...

Conservation managers cannot manage what they don’t know about, yet our existing biodiversity monitoring is idiosyncratic and small in scale. One of Australia’s commitments to the Convention for Biological Diversity in 2015 was the creation of a national biodiversity monitoring programme. This has not yet occurred despite the urgent need to monitor...

When seeking prey, predators adaptively deploy strategies coarsely divided into sit-and-wait, sit-and-pursue, or active hunting modes. Though the hunting modes of many predators have been extensively studied, the implications of the hunting modes of human (Homo sapiens) predation are not yet fully understood. We conducted an extensive literature re...

Human-wildlife conflicts may be unintended consequences of conservation successes and rewilding, and could be exacerbated where baselines around biodiversity have shifted. Mediating conflict is a conservation priority due to its socio-economic impacts and the consequences negative perceptions have for conservation outcomes. We document locally nove...

Large (>15 kg) carnivores, namely lions (Panthera leo ), leopards (Panthera pardus ), cheetahs (Acinonyx jubatus), African wild dogs (Lycaon pictus ), spotted (Crocuta crocuta) and brown hyaenas (Parahyaena brunnea ), have been reintroduced to 16 private- and state-owned reserves in the Eastern Cape Province, South Africa. Objectives behind these r...

Rates at which predators encounter, hunt and kill prey are influenced by, among other things, the intrinsic condition of prey. Diseases can considerably compromise body condition, potentially weakening ability of afflicted prey to avoid predation. Understanding predator–prey dynamics is particularly important when both species are threatened, as is...

Recent research has highlighted several influential roles that humans play in ecosystems, including that of a superpredator, hyperkeystone species, and niche constructor. This work has begun to describe the Eltonian niche of humans, which encompasses humanity's cumulative ecological and evolutionary roles in trophic systems. However, we lack a unif...

The squirrel glider (Petaurus norfolcensis) is a threatened, gliding marsupial that persists in fragmented landscapes despite its restricted capacity to cross large gaps. As measures to maintain and/or restore suitable habitat depend on knowledge about the species' ecological requirements, we investigated the area used by squirrel gliders in an urb...

The common chimpanzee Pan troglodytes is the closest extant relative of modern humans and is often used as a model organism to help understand prehistoric human behavior and ecology. Originally presumed herbivorous, chimpanzees have been observed hunting 24 species of birds, ungulates, rodents, and other primates, using an array of techniques from...

Ecologists have long had a "love-hate" relationship with the niche concept. Sometimes referred to as a term best left undefined, the niche concept nonetheless spans ecology. Deeply rooted in the Darwinian struggle for survival , "niche" has been a core, although slippery, idea in ecology since its origins. What ecologists mean by niche has changed...

While the negative impacts of dam construction on downstream river stretches and riparian forests are well studied, the status of wildlife presence and persistence in upstream reservoir deltas is virtually unknown. We investigated the drivers of terrestrial mammal occupancy and persistence along riparian forests of Koyna reservoir in western India...

Supplementary data including all the codes and supporting tables and figures.

Chimpanzees Pan troglodytes are the closest extant relative of modern humans, and are often used as a model organism to help understand prehistoric human behavior and ecology. Originally presumed herbivorous, chimpanzees have been observed hunting 24 species of birds, ungulates, rodents, monkeys, and other primates, using an array of techniques fro...

Apex predators play a critical role in maintaining the health of ecosystems but are highly susceptible to habitat degradation and loss caused by land-use changes, and to anthropogenic mortality. The leopard Panthera pardus is the last free-roaming large carnivore in the Western Cape province, South Africa. During 2011–2015, we carried out a camera-...

The parma wallaby (Notomacropus parma Waterhouse, 1846) is a small macropodid marsupial found in the temperate wet forests of south-eastern Australia. It is one of the most understudied critical weight range mammals in Australia, with the only detailed published ecological research being conducted in the 1970s. This chapter reports on the inadequac...

The southern and northern heath frogs (Litoria watsoni and Litoria littlejohni) are sister treefrog species experiencing an enigmatic decline across large parts of their range. Their naturally low abundance, uncommon habit of breeding sporadically throughout the year, and restriction to high elevations (> 100 m), make these species some of the most...

Article impact statement: Combining native and non‐native species to evaluate biodiversity is overly simplistic and may undermine the conservation of ecosystems.

Understanding traditional hunter-gatherer lifestyles in our modern world is fundamental to our understanding of their viability, as well as the role of humans as predators in structuring ecosystems. Here, we examine the factors that drive prey preferences of modern hunter-gatherer people by reviewing 85 published studies from 161 tropical, temperat...

In the process of avoiding predation, prey are faced with potentially fitness‐compromising trade‐offs that have implications for their survival and reproduction. The nature and strength of these non‐consumptive effects at the population level can be equivalent, or even greater, than consumptive effects. Many prey species have evolved defence mechan...

Conservation translocations, including reintroductions, are practices that are vital to restoring biodiversity and ecosystem function within conservation schemes globally. Sadly, population translocations have had a poor success rate historically. At a time where biodiversity is constantly decreasing, improving translocation success is vital for fu...

Red squirrel (Sciurus vulgaris) range within the United Kingdom (UK) has retracted significantly due to the spread of an Invasive Alien Species, the North American Eastern grey squirrel (Sciurus carolinensis). Where grey squirrels are sympatric, red squirrel populations decline through inter-specific competition and squirrelpox virus (SQPV) infecti...

Since the introduction of the term “rewilding” in 1998, several definitions have been proposed, sparking debate around terminology and how (or if) rewilding differs from restoration. Many papers attempt to distinguish between the two terms through a series of descriptive attributes: historic baselines, landscape‐driven transformation, ongoing human...

• Animals should adapt their foraging habits, changing their dietary breadth in response to variation in the richness and availability of food resources. Understanding how species modify their dietary breadth according to variation in resource richness would support predictions of their responses to environmental changes that alter prey communities...

Surveillance of animal movements using electronic tags (i.e., biotelemetry) has emerged as an essential tool for both basic and applied ecological research and monitoring. Advances in animal tracking are occurring simultaneously with changes to technology, in an evolving global scientific culture that increasingly promotes data sharing and transpar...

While constrained by endogenous rhythms, morphology and ecology, animals may still exhibit flexible activity patterns in response to risk. Temporal avoidance of interspecific aggression can enable access to resources without spatial exclusion. Apex predators, including humans, can affect mesopredator activity patterns. Human context might also modi...

“Compassionate Conservation” is an emerging movement within conservation science that is gaining attention through its promotion of “ethical” conservation practices that place empathy and compassion and the moral principles of “first, do no harm” and “individuals matter” at the forefront of conservation practice. We have articulated elsewhere how C...

Lion predation on cattle causes severe human–wildlife conflict that results in retaliatory persecution throughout the lion’s geographic range. Cattle closely resemble the body size, shape, and herding patterns of preferred lion prey species. We studied cattle depredation patterns in Botswana’s Okavango Delta and tested whether lions exhibited speci...

Understanding the mechanisms facilitating coexistence within species assemblages is a key consideration for conservation as intact assemblages are necessary for maintaining full ecosystem function. The African large predator guild represents one of the few remaining functionally intact large predator assemblages on Earth, and as such, represents a...

Context: The success of conservation fences at protecting reintroduced populations of threatened mammals from introduced predators has prompted an increase in the number and extent of fenced exclosures. Excluding introduced species from within conservation fences could also benefit components of in situ faunal assemblages that are prey for introduc...

Concern for megafauna is increasing among scientists and non-scientists. Many studies have emphasized that megafauna play prominent ecological roles and provide important ecosystem services to humanity. But, what precisely are ‘megafauna’? Here, we critically assess the concept of megafauna and propose a goal-oriented framework for megafaunal resea...

Scent marking, where individuals deposit signals on objects in the environment, is a common form of chemical signalling in mammals and is thought to play a critical role in maintaining social organization within wide-ranging, spatially dispersed populations. Senders, however, can incur scent-marking costs through mark production, time investment in...

Encounters between individuals can have implications for a range of processes, including disease transmission, information transfer and competition. For large carnivores, difficulties in directly observing individuals and historical hardware limitations of GPS collars mean that relatively little is known of the spatio‐temporal factors contributing...

In face of a changing climate, it is of global importance to understand the way biodiversity utilizes riparian areas – that often act as refuges from climatic extremes. Our understanding of mammalian species assemblages and space-use patterns throughout riparian areas is limited. To test the role that riparian habitat structure plays in determining...

Introducing consumptive and non-consumptive effects into food webs can have profound effects on individuals, populations and communities. Consequently, the deliberate use of predation and/or fear of predation is an emerging technique for controlling wildlife. Many now advocate for the intentional use of large carnivores and livestock guardian dogs...

Protected areas are critical to conservation efforts in the face of rapid biodiversity declines [ 1 ]. Yet the resources for conservation are often limited and shared amongst many competing priorities [ 2 ]. As a consequence, even basic monitoring surveys are absent within most protected areas [ 3 ]. Although a range of wildlife monitoring methods...

Compassionate conservation focuses on 4 tenets: first, do no harm; individuals matter; inclusivity of individual animals; and peaceful coexistence between humans and animals. Recently, compassionate conservation has been promoted as an alternative to conventional conservation philosophy. We believe examples presented by compassionate conservationis...

Satellite telemetry is an increasingly utilized technology in wildlife research, and current devices can track individual animal movements at unprecedented spatial and temporal resolutions. However, as we enter the golden age of satellite telemetry, we need an in-depth understanding of the main technological, species-specific and environmental fact...

Science (E-letter) https://science.sciencemag.org/content/364/6438/eaav5570/tab-e-letters Rewilding needs to clarify the role of management of invasive species Matt W. Hayward, Associate Professor of Conservation Biology, University of Newcastle, Australia Other Contributors: David S. Jachowski, Professor of Conservation, Clemson University Craig...

Context Resistance-based connectivity models are widely used conservation tools for spatial prioritization and corridor planning, but there are no generally accepted methods and recommendations for validating whether these models accurately predict actual movement routes. Hence, despite growing interest and recognition of the importance of protecti...

A societal shift toward plant dominant diets and a reduction in livestock rearing could have broad social, environmental and conservation benefits. Livestock husbandry, however, has a wealthy cultural history, strong support and high consumer demand. It is therefore likely to continue as a major land use and conservation issue for predators. From a...

Rewilding is emerging as a major issue in conservation. However, there are currently a dozen definitions of rewilding that include Pleistocene rewilding, island rewilding, trophic rewilding, functional rewilding and passive rewilding, and these remain fuzzy, lack clarity and, hence, hinder scientific discourse. Based on current definitions, it is u...

Introducing consumptive and non-consumptive effects into food webs can have profound effects on individuals, populations and communities. This knowledge has led to the deliberate use of predation and/or fear of predation as an emerging technique for controlling wildlife. Many now advocate for the intentional use of large carnivores and livestock gu...

Many of the world's vertebrates have experienced large population and geographic range declines due to anthropogenic threats that put them at risk of extinction. The largest vertebrates, defined as megafauna, are especially vulnerable. We analyzed how human activities are impacting the conservation status of megafauna within six classes: mammals, r...

Cambridge Core - Natural Resource Management, Agriculture, Horticulture and forestry - Rewilding - edited by Nathalie Pettorelli

In its simplest form, ‘top-down’ control refers to directional regulation within an ecosystem, where species occupying higher trophic levels exert controlling influences on species at the next lower trophic level (Terborgh et al., 1999). Thus, top-down control can describe top predators controlling smaller predators or prey, or herbivores exerting...

Across Africa, lions (Panthera leo) are heavily persecuted in anthropogenic landscapes. Trans-disciplinary research and virtual boundaries (geofences) programmed into GPS-tracking transmitters offer new opportunities to improve coexistence. During a 24-month pilot study (2016-2018), we alerted communities about approaching lions, issuing 1,017 aler...

Little is known of the resources that limit or promote the rapidly expanding golden jackal (Canis aureus) population in Europe. We hypothesised that in an area of intensive big game hunting, a reduction of the main food resource (human subsidised big game viscera) would result in dietary switching. We used multivariate analyses to test whether the...

Meteorological data of the study area (Lábod region, SW Hungary). Source of climate data: Hungarian Meteorological Service. (DOC)

Harvest density (individuals/km2) of game species in Lábod region (SW Hungary). Source: Hungarian Game Management Database (http://ova.info.hu). (DOC)

Wild-living adult golden jackal (Canis aureus) eating the viscera of big game. Jackals eat considerable amounts of meat quickly, in relatively large chunks. The 58-second film was made by Zoltán Horváth (Danube-Drava National Park Directorate) in daylight, ca. 15 kilometres away from our study area. (MP4)

Geographic locality, main habitat types and sampling site of the study area (Lábod region, SW Hungary). (TIF)

Maintaining connectivity among remaining natural areas has become increasingly important to ameliorate the negative effects of habitat loss and fragmentation on wildlife populations. Early corridor networks were based on structural connectivity (i.e. habitat structure) and designed to connect protected areas. In recent decades, many methods have be...

Populations of European pine marten (Martes martes) across Great Britain declined dramatically during the 18th and 19th centuries due to deforestation and human-wildlife conflicts. Pine marten recovery from their northern Scottish stronghold is limited following reintroduction in Galloway Forest District, south-west Scotland, in the 1980s. With sug...

At the biogeographic scale, spatial variation in diets may reflect not only the ecological flexibility of carnivore feeding habits, but also evolutionary adaptations of different populations within a species. We described the large-scale pattern in brown bear Ursus arctos predation on ungulates, its selectivity for ungulate species, and its relativ...

Fortified kraals are predator-proof enclosures designed to protect livestock at night. Globally, they show great promise in reducing depredation by carnivores, thus promoting co-existence with people. Their efficacy depends on effectiveness, durability, regular use, owner satisfaction, cost-efficiency, and design. We monitored 32 fortified kraals f...

Provisional clustering of the abstracts, external use (Corresponding Authors) Legend: First letter= the day of presentation, 2nd digit = the session, 3rd or 3rd and 4th digits =the order, next letter = type of presentation (K Keynote, C oral communication, P poster), digits after letter = duration. Example: W110C5 Wednesday in the first session,...

Landscape connectivity is an important component of systematic conservation planning. Step-selection functions (SSFs) is a highly promising method for connectivity modeling. However, differences in movement behavior across individuals and seasons are usually not considered in current SSF-based analyses, potentially leading to imprecise connectivity...