Simon Hedges

• Planning, Design, and Impact Lead at Zoological Society of London

Non-invasive DNA-based capture–mark–recapture (CMR) methods have been developed to estimate population size and other parameters and have the advantage that samples can be collected without the need to see or disturb the animals. There are, however, few comparisons of DNA-based CMR estimates of animal population size with estimates from non-genetic...

Habitat fragmentation undermines the functioning of ecosystems, and so biodiversity conservation often entails maintaining or restoring landscape connections. However, conservationists also destroy connectivity by constructing wildlife fences. A recent debate about the use of fences to protect African lions (1–3) highlights a more general need to e...

Human–elephant conflict (HEC) is a serious threat to elephants and can cause major economic losses. It is widely accepted that reduction of HEC will often require community-based methods for repelling elephants but there are few tests of such methods. We tested community-based crop-guarding methods with and without novel chili-based elephant deterr...

The need for conservation scientists to produce research of greater relevance to practitioners is now increasingly recognized. This study provides an example of scientists working alongside practitioners and policy makers to address a question of immediate relevance to elephant conservation in Malaysia and using the results to inform wildlife manag...

La faune sauvage peut directement menacer la sécurité, les moyens de subsistance et le bien-être des gens. Des représailles contre l'espèce incriminée s'ensuivent souvent, entraînant un conflit entre les groupes de personnes concernées quant à ce qu'il convient de faire pour résoudre la situation. Les conflits entre les humains et la faune sauvage...

Qual é a mudança que você está tentando fazer e como chegar lá? Quando se trata de questões complexas, como conflitos entre humanos e animais selvagens, as respostas a essas perguntas nem sempre são tão simples quanto parecem. A compreensão das dimensões ecológicas e sociais dos conflitos entre humanos e animais selvagens, por si só, não se traduz...

Essas Diretrizes estão centradas em Princípios fundamentais de compreensão e gerenciamento de conflitos entre humanos e animais selvagens: (1) Não causar danos, (2) Entender os problemas e o contexto, (3) Trabalhar em conjunto, (4) Integrar ciência e política e (5) Possibilitar caminhos sustentáveis. Esses se espelham em uma Lista de Verificação de...

As avaliações de impacto analisam o vínculo causal entre uma ação (por exemplo, a construção de uma cerca) e os resultados (por exemplo, uma mudança na taxa de invasão de plantações por elefantes). Isso vai além de entender se um projeto foi implementado (por exemplo, se as atividades foram concluídas) para entender quais mudanças ocorreram devido...

This guide is for governments, conservationists practitioners and insurers to design and introduce Insurance Schemes to reduce human-wildlife Conflict (HWC) and promote human-wildlife coexistence. HWC imposes significant costs on poor, small-scale farmers and pastoralists in many parts of the world, particularly those living adjacent to protected a...

What is the change you are trying to make and how do you get there? When it comes down to complex issues such as human-wildlife conflicts, the answers to these questions are not always as simple as they may seem. An understanding of the ecological and social dimensions of human-wildlife conflict itself does not translate naturally into effective...

As human-wildlife conflicts become more frequent, serious and widespread worldwide, they are notoriously challenging to resolve, and many efforts to address these conflicts struggle to make progress. These Guidelines provide an essential guide to understanding and resolving human-wildlife conflict. The Guidelines aim to provide foundations and prin...

Impact evaluations assess the causal link between an action (e.g. erecting a fence) and the outcomes (e.g. a change in the rate of crop raiding by elephants). This goes beyond understanding whether a project has been implemented (e.g. whether activities were completed) to understanding what changes happened due to the actions taken and why they...

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...

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...

Species interactions matter to conservation. Setting an ambitious recovery target for a species requires considering the size, density, and demographic structure of its populations such that they fulfill the interactions, roles, and functions of the species in the ecosystems in which they are embedded. A recently proposed framework for an Internati...

The need for conservation scientists to produce research of greater relevance to practitioners is now increasingly recognized. This study provides an example of scientists working alongside practitioners and policy makers to address a question of immediate relevance to elephant conservation in Malaysia and using the results to inform wildlife manag...

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...

Understanding the drivers of Asian elephant (Elephas maximus) abundance and distribution is critical for effective elephant conservation, yet no such analysis exists despite decades of assessments and planning. We explored the influence of habitat- and governance-related drivers on elephant abundance across the 13 Asian elephant range countries. We...

In our recent perspective article, we noted that most (approximately 0 percent) terrestrial large carnivore and large herbivore species are now threatened with extinction, and we offered a 13-point declaration designed to promote and guide actions to save these iconic mammalian megafauna (Ripple et al. 2016). Some may worry that a focus on saving m...

From the late Pleistocene to the Holocene and now the so-called Anthropocene, humans have been driving an ongoing series of species declines and extinctions (Dirzo et al. 2014). Large-bodied mammals are typically at a higher risk of extinction than smaller ones (Cardillo et al. 2005). However, in some circumstances, terrestrial megafauna population...

The identification of species at risk of extinction is a central goal of conservation. As the use of data compiled for IUCN Red List assessments expands, a number of misconceptions regarding the purpose, application and use of the IUCN Red List categories and criteria have arisen. We outline five such classes of misconception; the most consequentia...

The internationally illegal wildlife trade directly threatens the survival of commercially high value (CHV) species. Consumer demand for wildlife products is extensive and deeply rooted in East Asian culture. This chapter develops and extends the analysis of Walston et al. (2010) by considering its relevance to other CHV species in Asia. It then pr...

http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v513/n7517/abs/nature13717.html#comment-64445

Population monitoring is an essential part of wildlife management and conservation but reliable monitoring of small populations of elephants and other species in forests presents formidable challenges. The use of fecal DNA based capture–recapture (CMR) methods has become more popular as the costs of laboratory analyses have fallen, solutions to a...

Myanmar’s captive elephant population may be 2>3 times the size of the wild population. Overharvest of wild populations for the extractive industries may be a key extinction driver. Recently, the Forest Department has started to phase out timber harvest to exert control over the timber industry, and at the same time reduce rapid deforestation and i...

The conclusion of Pfeifer et al. —that wildlife fencing should be context-dependent—echoes our own call for fencing decisions to be based on realistic assessments of the costs and benefits. We did not, as Pfeifer et al. suggest, state that fencing impacts were invariably negative, nor did we

Global species loss during the present human-caused mass-extinction far exceeds background rates and is detrimental to human existence. Across the globe, vertebrate extinction risks are highest in South-east Asia. This region has among the world’s fastest recent habitat-loss rates. More of a determinant to the conservation status of many vertebrate...

The Lao People’s Democratic Republic (PDR) may have the largest Asian elephant population in Indochina. However, elephants on Lao PDR’s Nakai Plateau are potentially threatened by the construction of a hydropower dam that will flood important habitat. We conducted a non-invasive genetic study of elephants in this region to provide baseline data on...

The conservation of species is one of the foundations of conservation biology. Successful species conservation has often been defined as simply the avoidance of extinction. We argue that this focus, although important, amounts to practicing conservation at the “emergency room door,” and will never be a sufficient approach to conserving species. Ins...

Crop raiding by elephants is the most prevalent form of human–elephant conflict and can result in devastating economic losses for farmers, loss of human lives and the killing or capture of elephants. Chilli (capsaicin)-based elephant deterrents have been promoted as tools for reducing such conflict but have been little tested. From October 2005 to...

In most social animals, the prevalence of directly transmitted pathogens increases in larger groups and at higher population densities. Such patterns are predicted by models of Mycobacterium bovis infection in European badgers ( Meles meles ). We investigated the relationship between badger abundance and M. bovis prevalence, using data on 2696 adul...

Knowledge of mammalian diversity is still surprisingly disparate, both regionally and taxonomically. Here, we present a comprehensive assessment of the conservation status and distribution of the world's mammals. Data, compiled by 1700+ experts, cover all 5487 species, including marine mammals. Global macroecological patterns are very different for...

Knowledge of mammalian diversity is still surprisingly disparate, both regionally and taxonomically. Here, we present a comprehensive assessment of the conservation status and distribution of the world's mammals. Data, compiled by 1700+ experts, cover all 5487 species, including marine mammals. Global macroecological patterns are very different for...

Asian elephants (Elephas maximus) in western zoos are likely to become extinct unless elephants are regrouped into breeding units or additional elephants are imported from range States. There have been proposals for the export of elephants from elephant camps in Sumatra, Indonesia. In exchange, zoos would be expected to provide funds or support ‘in...

The Asiatic wild dog or dhole was once very widely distributed across Asia but now has a very fragmented range. In this first genetic study of this little-known species, we obtained information on genetic diversity, phylogeography, and social structure using both mitochondrial control region sequencing and microsatellite genotyping of noninvasive f...

In the mid 1980s, Asian elephant (Elephas maximus) populations were believed to persist in 44 populations on the Indonesian island of Sumatra. Twelve of these populations occurred in Lampung Province, but our surveys revealed that only three were extant in 2002. Causal factors underlying this decline include human population growth, changes in land...

1. The anoas are two species of dwarf buffalo, the lowland anoa Bubalus depressicornis and mountain anoa Bubalus quarlesi that are endemic to the island of Sulawesi, Indonesia. The classification of the subgenus Anoa within Bubalus is upheld by assessment of recent genetic and morphological research. The classification of anoas into two species is...

Action plan account for the Dhole (Cuon alpinus)

Brief bird observations in the hilly south-east of Cambodia in early 1997 recorded 16 species new to the country. Two more firsts were found near Phnom Penh. There were few records of globally or regionally threatened species reflecting the brevity of the work and the location of most observations in and around human settlement.