Richard P Young

Richard P Young
Nature Positive

BSc, MSc, PhD

About

106
Publications
51,771
Reads
How we measure 'reads'
A 'read' is counted each time someone views a publication summary (such as the title, abstract, and list of authors), clicks on a figure, or views or downloads the full-text. Learn more
2,593
Citations
Citations since 2017
56 Research Items
2014 Citations
20172018201920202021202220230100200300400
20172018201920202021202220230100200300400
20172018201920202021202220230100200300400
20172018201920202021202220230100200300400
Additional affiliations
September 2014 - present
Imperial College London
Position
  • Visiting Research Fellow
January 2011 - January 2021
IUCN SMSG Small Mammal Specialist Group
Position
  • Chair
January 2005 - June 2021
Durrell Wildlife Conservation Trust
Position
  • Managing Director

Publications

Publications (106)
Article
Full-text available
Improving the effectiveness of conservation translocations could contribute to reversing global biodiversity loss. Although evaluations of ecological factors affecting translocation outcomes are commonplace, consideration of human social factors remains rare, hindering improvements to this conservation practice. We analysed 550 translocation case s...
Article
Full-text available
In 2021, the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) introduced a novel method for assessing species recovery and conservation impact: the IUCN Green Status of Species. The Green Status standardizes recovery using a metric called the Green Score, which ranges from 0% to 100%. This study focuses on one crucial step in the Green Status...
Article
Full-text available
Given the scale of the current biodiversity loss, setting conservation priorities is essential to direct scarce resources to where they will be most effective. Many prioritization schemes have been described by using a wide range of criteria that vary across taxonomic groups, spatial scales, and ecological, socio-economic, and governance contexts....
Article
Full-text available
Erymnochelys madagascariensis is a Critically Endangered turtle endemic to Madagascar. Anthropogenic activity has depleted the wild population by 70% in the last century, and effective conservation management is essential to ensuring its persistence. Captive breeding was implemented to augment depleted populations in the southern part of Ankarafant...
Article
Full-text available
The pink pigeon (Nesoenas mayeri) is an endemic species of Mauritius that has made a remarkable recovery after a severe population bottleneck in the 1970s to early 1990s. Prior to this bottleneck, an ex situ population was established from which captive‐bred individuals were released into free‐living subpopulations to increase population size and g...
Article
Full-text available
Training plays a central role in the pursuit of conservation goals, and it is vital to know if it is having the desired effect. However, evaluating the difference it makes is notoriously challenging. Here, we present a practitioner's perspective on overcoming these challenges and developing a framework for ongoing evaluation of a conservation train...
Article
Full-text available
Increasing people's sense of connectedness to nature has the potential to be a powerful tool in driving pro-conservation behaviours, as well as improving physical and mental health. Multi-age cross-sectional studies have shown that nature connectedness signicantly dips after early childood before recovering in adulthood. However, the precise patter...
Article
Full-text available
The use of ecological replacements (analogue species to replace extinct taxa) to restore ecosystem functioning is a promising conservation tool. However, this approach is controversial, in part due to a paucity of data on interactions between analogue species and established taxa in the ecosystem. We conducted ecological surveys, comprehensively DN...
Article
Full-text available
Robust evaluation of the impact of biodiversity conservation actions is important not only for ensuring that conservation strategies are effective and maximise return on investment, but also to identify and celebrate successful conservation strategies. This evaluation can be retrospective (comparing the current situation to a counterfactual scenari...
Article
Full-text available
Recognizing the imperative to evaluate species recovery and conservation impact, in 2012 the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) called for development of a "Green List of Species" (now the IUCN Green Status of Species). A draft Green Status framework for assessing species' progress toward recovery, published in 2018, proposed 2 s...
Article
Recognizing the imperative to evaluate species recovery and conservation impact, in 2012 the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) called for development of a "Green List of Species" (now the IUCN Green Status of Species). A draft Green Status framework for assessing species' progress toward recovery, published in 2018, proposed 2 s...
Article
Full-text available
Recognizing the imperative to evaluate species recovery and conservation impact, in 2012 the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) called for development of a "Green List of Species" (now the IUCN Green Status of Species). A draft Green Status framework for assessing species' progress toward recovery, published in 2018, proposed 2 s...
Article
Full-text available
Recognizing the imperative to evaluate species recovery and conservation impact, in 2012 the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) called for development of a “Green List of Species” (now the IUCN Green Status of Species). A draft Green Status framework for assessing species’ progress toward recovery, published in 2018, proposed 2 s...
Article
Recognizing the imperative to evaluate species recovery and conservation impact, in 2012 the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) called for development of a "Green List of Species" (now the IUCN Green Status of Species). A draft Green Status framework for assessing species' progress toward recovery, published in 2018, proposed 2 s...
Article
Full-text available
Aim: To explore global patterns in spatial aggregations of species richness, vulnerability and data deficiency for Rodentia and Eulipotyphla. To evaluate the adequacy of existing protected area (PA) network for these areas. To provide a focus for local conservation initiatives. Location: Global. Methods: Total species, globally threatened (GT) spec...
Article
Full-text available
Aim To explore global patterns in spatial aggregations of species richness, vulnerability and data deficiency for Rodentia and Eulipotyphla. To evaluate the adequacy of existing protected area (PA) network for these areas. To provide a focus for local conservation initiatives. Location Global. Methods Total species, globally threatened (GT) speci...
Article
Full-text available
Article impact statement: Our scientific knowledge of basic ecology and conservation science is lacking for rodents, which is critical for zoonotic disease research This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved
Book
Competence frameworks are widely used in many professional sectors, helping to develop capacity by defining and recognising the required skills, knowledge and personal attributes. Registers of competences have been developed within the conservation sector. A global register of competences for threatened species recovery practitioners is a register...
Article
Full-text available
The climate emergency and crisis of biodiversity loss show that the human-nature relationship is failing. This paper introduces the psychological construct of nature connectedness as a measurable target for improving the human-nature relationship, and therefore helping tackle the warming climate and loss of wildlife. The 'pathways to nature connect...
Article
Full-text available
Aichi Target 12 of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) contains the aim to ‘prevent extinctions of known threatened species’. To measure the degree to which this was achieved, we used expert elicitation to estimate the number of bird and mammal species whose extinctions were prevented by conservation action in 1993–2020 (the lifetime of th...
Article
Full-text available
The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List of Threatened Species, a species extinction risk assessment tool, has been guiding conservation efforts for over 5 decades. It is widely assumed to have been instrumental in preventing species from moving closer to extinction and driving recoveries. However, the impact of the IUCN R...
Article
Full-text available
Comparative assessment of the relative information content of different independent spatial data types is necessary to evaluate whether they provide congruent biogeographic signals for predicting species ranges. Opportunistic occurrence records and systematically collected survey data are available from the Dominican Republic for Hispaniola’s survi...
Preprint
Full-text available
Aichi Target 12 of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) aims to 'prevent extinctions of known threatened species'. To measure its success, we used a Delphi expert elicitation method to estimate the number of bird and mammal species whose extinctions were prevented by conservation action in 1993 - 2020 (the lifetime of the CBD) and 2010 - 20...
Conference Paper
The Critically Endangered mountain chicken (Leptodactylus fallax), found on the Caribbean islands of Dominica and Montserrat, underwent one of the fastest declines observed in any vertebrate species due to the chytrid fungus Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis. A remnant population of c.130 individuals survives on Dominica but the Montserrat population...
Article
Vulnerability to habitat fragmentation Habitat fragmentation caused by human activities has consequences for the distribution and movement of organisms. Betts et al. present a global analysis of how exposure to habitat fragmentation affects the composition of ecological communities (see the Perspective by Hargreaves). In a dataset consisting of 448...
Article
Full-text available
Historical data are a valuable resource for addressing present-day conservation issues, for example by informing the establishment of appropriate recovery targets. However, while the recovery of threatened species is the end goal of many conservation programmes, data made available through the efforts of palaeoecologists and historical ecologists a...
Article
Full-text available
Emerging infectious diseases are an increasingly important threat to wildlife conservation, with amphibian chytridiomycosis, caused by Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis, the disease most commonly associated with species declines and extinctions. However, some amphibians can be infected with B. dendrobatidis in the absence of disease and can act as res...
Article
Full-text available
Emerging infectious diseases are an increasingly important threat to wildlife conservation, with amphibian chytridiomycosis, caused by Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis, the disease most commonly associated with species declines and extinctions. However, some amphibians can be infected with B. dendrobatidis in the absence of disease and can act as res...
Article
Full-text available
Understanding genetic structure and diversity underpins the management of isolated populations. Small populations confined to islands may require effective genetic management for population persistence due to inbreeding and reduced genetic diversity. Endemic to the offshore islands of mainland Mauritius, the Bojer’s skink (Gongylomorphus bojerii) h...
Article
Full-text available
Conservation decision-making for threatened species in human-modified landscapes requires detailed knowledge about spatial ecology, but robust data derived from tracking individual animals are often unavailable, with management decisions potentially based on unreliable anecdotal data. Existing data are limited for Hispaniola's two threatened non-vo...
Article
Full-text available
The Hispaniolan solenodon, Solenodon paradoxus, and Hispaniolan hutia, Plagiodontia aedium, are the Dominican Republic’s only surviving endemic non-volant land mammals, and are high priorities for conservation. The country has an extensive protected area (PA) network designed to maintain habitats and benefit biodiversity, but which faces significan...
Article
The illegal wildlife trade is driving declines in populations of a number of large, charismatic animal species but also many lesser known and restricted-range species, some of which are now facing extinction as a result. The ploughshare tortoise Astrochelys yniphora , endemic to the Baly Bay National Park of north-western Madagascar, is affected by...
Chapter
The penultimate volume of the Handbook of Mammals of the World covers all of the remaining orders (Cingulata, Pilosa, Afrosoricida, Macroscelidea, Scandentia, Dermoptera, and Eulipotyphla), other than bats (Chiroptera). From armadillos, sloths, and anteaters to shrews and moles, Volume 8 includes a wide variety of interesting small or medium-sized...
Article
Cambridge Core - Natural Resource Management, Agriculture, Horticulture and forestry - Species Conservation - edited by Jamieson A. Copsey
Article
Full-text available
Stopping declines in biodiversity is critically important, but it is only a first step toward achieving more ambitious conservation goals. The absence of an objective and practical definition of species recovery that is applicable across taxonomic groups leads to inconsistent targets in recovery plans and frustrates reporting and maximization of co...
Article
Full-text available
There is a major gap in funding required for conservation, especially in low income countries. Given the significant contribution of taxpayers in industrialized countries to funding conservation overseas, and donations from membership organisation, understanding the preferences of ordinary people in a high income country for different attributes of...
Data
Excel file containing metadata, summary, variable names, results and the survey code for android phones. (XLSX)
Data
Oral consent script and attribute explanation. (DOCX)
Data
Table A. Campaign dates during the choice experiment field experiemnt during August 2016. Table B. Respondents and total paying visitors to the Zoo based on ticket sales the four week experimental period in July/ August 2016. (DOCX)
Data
Table A. results of the MIXL base model with all respondents. Table B. Results of the MIXL model with socio- economic and marketing exposure interactions (standard error in parenthesis). Table C. Results of the MIXL base model conducted only with the sample of respondents that gave a real donation during either marketing campaign. (DOCX)
Chapter
Rodents include species that have colonized almost every available habitat on earth, and others that have adapted to human beings and followed them as they also spread across the globe. Volume 7 completes the order Rodentia—which represents arguably the most important order of mammals, both in terms of number of species, and in geographic distribut...
Article
Full-text available
Reflecting a global trend, freshwater wetlands in Madagascar have received little conservation or research attention. Madagascar is a global conservation priority due to its high level of species endemism but most work has focused on protecting forests. For the first time, we investigated the state of wetlands across the country to determine the ef...
Data
Country-wide wetland status. Locations and disturbance variables for 973 wetlands predicted by GIS and confirmed against Landsat images. (XLSX)
Data
Human disturbance and biodiversity data for the 37 lakes visited during our surveys. (XLSX)
Data
Results from PCA analyses of human disturbance data. Tables showing loadings and importance for the nine variables in the full disturbance dataset, and for the five variables in the GIS derived subset. (DOCX)
Data
Endemic bird surveys at independent samples of 22 lakes. (XLSX)
Article
The insular Caribbean is among the few oceanic-type island systems colonized by non-volant land mammals. This region also has experienced the world’s highest level of historical mammal extinctions, with at least 29 species lost since AD 1500. Representatives of only 2 land-mammal families (Capromyidae and Solenodontidae) now survive, in Cuba, Hispa...
Article
Full-text available
The global amphibian crisis and current un-mitigatable threats make ex situ programmes a crucial complementary action for the conservation of many amphibians. Zoos and aquariums are some of the most important and influential groups of institutions to undertake this yet the proportion of globally threatened amphibians in zoos is just 23.9% compared...
Article
Full-text available
A bat on the brink? A range-wide survey of the Critically Endangered Livingstone's fruit bat Pteropus livingstonii—CORRIGENDUM - Volume 51 Issue 4 - Bronwen M. Daniel, Kathleen E. Green, Hugh Doulton, Daniel Mohamed Salim, Ishaka Said, Michael Hudson, Jeff S. Dawson, Richard P. Young, Amelaid Houmadi
Article
Full-text available
Scientific Reports 6 : Article number: 30772; 10.1038/srep30772 published online: 03 August 2016 updated: 11 January 2017 . In this Article, R. A. Griffiths is incorrectly listed as being affiliated with ‘Durrell Wildlife Conservation Trust, Les Augres Manor, Trinity, Jersey, Channel Islands, UK’ The correct affiliation is listed below: Durrell Ins...
Article
The Livingstone's fruit bat Pteropus livingstonii is endemic to the small islands of Anjouan and Mohéli in the Comoros archipelago, Indian Ocean. The species is under threat from anthropogenic pressure on the little that remains of its forest habitat, now restricted to the islands’ upper elevations and steepest slopes. We report the results of the...
Article
Full-text available
Amphibian chytridiomycosis has caused precipitous declines in hundreds of species worldwide. By tracking mountain chicken (Leptodactylus fallax) populations before, during and after the emergence of chytridiomycosis, we quantified the real-time species level impacts of this disease. We report a range-wide species decline amongst the fastest ever re...
Article
Full-text available
The outcomes of species recovery programmes have been mixed, with high-profile population recoveries contrasting with species-level extinctions. Although each conservation intervention faces its own challenges, it is imperative to assess whether such lessons have wider general applicability. To contribute towards evidence-based improvement of futur...
Article
Full-text available
Understanding how fishers make decisions is important for improving management of fisheries. There is debate about the extent to which small-scale fishers follow an ideal free distribution (IFD) – distributing their fishing effort efficiently according to resource availability rather than being influenced by social factors or personal preference. U...
Data
Proportions of catch and effort observed across all gear types at fishing locations in Lake Alaotra, calculated for all fishers who also participated in background interviews (n = 788 catch interviews with 151 individual fishers). The pattern shown is similar to Fig. 2a and so justifying the use of the background interview dataset for all future an...
Article
Full-text available
Aim To determine the evolutionary history, relationships and distinctiveness of allopatric populations of Hispaniolan solenodon ( Solenodon paradoxus ), a highly threatened Caribbean ‘relict’ mammal, to understand spatio‐temporal patterns of gene flow and the distribution of diversity across complex large island landscapes and inform spatial conser...
Article
The outcomes of species recovery programs have been mixed; high-profile population recoveries contrast with species-level extinctions. Each conservation intervention has its own challenges, but to inform more effective management it is imperative to assess whether correlates of wider recovery program success or failure can be identified. To contrib...
Article
Full-text available
Abstract Continued uncertainty persists over the taxonomic status of many threatened Caribbean mammal populations. Recent molecular analysis has identified three genetically isolated allopatric hutia populations on Hispaniola that diverged during the Middle Pleistocene, with observed levels of sequence divergence interpreted as representing subspec...
Article
Full-text available
Global amphibian declines are one of the biggest challenges currently facing the conservation community, and captive breeding is one way to address this crisis. Using information from the International Species Information System zoo network, we examined trends in global zoo amphibian holdings across species, zoo region, and species geographical reg...