With present rates of extinction, interventions, such as ex-situ breeding and translocations, are becoming vital. вЂњThe impact of animal behaviour on conservation has recently emerged as an important area of research. There is good evidence that these dialects can impact female mate choice and promote assortative mating between birds. As well as individual differences between birds, populations often show distinctive local вЂdialectsвЂ™. вЂњBirdsong plays a vital role in mate selection, with females choosing mates based on a variety of song features. вЂњMy PhD project at the University of Manchester draws on a number of these areas to examine the evolution of birdsong in zoos and whether this may cause a barrier for conservation efforts, using the Java sparrow as a model. These included conservation interventions, animal behaviour, nutrition, enrichment, human-wildlife conflict, ecosystem health and sustainable use.

вЂњFollowing my internship, I undertook an MSc at the Royal Veterinary College and ZSL London Zoo where I explored a number of topics in management and conservation. This cemented my desire to work with zoos in my future career as I believe they have a vital role to play in conservation. In 2014 вЂ“ 2015 I joined the Chester Zoo Primate Team as a One Year Intern. вЂњI am a zoologist with a strong interest in animal management within zoos and in animal behaviour, as well as in conservation. Her PhD is funded by NERC and Chester Zoo.

She is supervised by Dr Tucker GilmanВ and is working with Chester Zoo to examine the impact of birdsong evolution on conservation efforts. I studied Zoology at Leeds University (BSc, 1997), Conservation Biology at the Durrell Institute for Conservation and Ecology (MSc, 2000), carried out my doctorate in WildCRU, Oxford University (DPhil, 2014), and trained in nonprofit strategic management at Harvard Business School (2015) and conflict negotiation and dispute resolution at Harvard Law School (2017).Rebecca is part of the NERC-funded Earth, Atmosphere and Oceans doctoral training programme at the University of Manchester. I also designed and led five Darwin Initiative grants on human-wildlife conflict in India, Indonesia, Nepal and Bolivia. My work on human-wildlife conflict has included jaguars and pumas in Brazil and Venezuela, elephants in India and Indonesia, tigers in Nepal, bears in Bolivia, and fruit bats in Mauritius.

I was previously with Chester Zoo for 18 years, most recently as of Head of Conservation Science, focussing on research & development, strategic partnerships and monitoring and evaluation.Д«ased at WildCRU, I lead a partnership between Chester Zoo and WildCRU which comprises an interdisciplinary team of doctoral and postdoctoral researchers studying a range of human-wildlife interactions around the globe. IвЂ™m also a Member of the IUCN SSC Asian Elephant Specialist Group, the Cat Specialist Group, IUCN SOS Technical Advisory Board, and the Conservation Advisory Board of Elephant Family. I am Chair of the IUCN SSC Human-Wildlife Conflict Task Force and Senior Advisor on Human-Wildlife Conflict to the World Bank. I also work on policy and capacity building for conservation conflict mediation, particularly at national and intergovernmental levels.

My applied work concentrates mostly on community engagement and stakeholder dialogue, while my research focusses on quantitative and qualitative social research on livelihoods and the socio-cultural aspects of living near wildlife. I specialize in human-wildlife conflict, in particular analysis, mediation, policy and training.

Dr adams zoo biology