Neil D'Cruze
World Animal Protection
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Publication
Featured researches published by Neil D'Cruze.
BioScience | 2013
Sandra E. Baker; Russ Cain; Freya van Kesteren; Zinta Zommers; Neil D'Cruze; David W. Macdonald
Wildlife trade is a big and burgeoning business, but its welfare impacts have not been studied comprehensively. We review the animal welfare impacts of the wildlife trade as they were reported in the literature between 2006 and 2011. Rarely was the term welfare mentioned, evidence of welfare impact documented, or welfare improvement recommended. Literature focused on mammals and on animals killed on site, for luxury goods or food, and for traditional medicine. Welfare impacts may be underreported, particularly in international, illegal, and wild-caught trade and trade in reptiles. Greater attention should perhaps be paid to the welfare of animals traded alive and in larger numbers (e.g., birds, reptiles, amphibians) and to those—including mammals—potentially subject to greater impacts through live use (e.g., as pets). More evidence-based research is needed. Animal welfare should be integrated with wider issues; collaboration between conservationists and welfarists and the development of health and welfare levers to influence trade offer benefits to both people and wildlife.
Nature | 2017
Marion Pfeifer; Veronique Lefebvre; Carlos A. Peres; Cristina Banks-Leite; Oliver R. Wearn; Charles J. Marsh; S.H.M. Butchart; Víctor Arroyo-Rodríguez; Jos Barlow; Alexis Cerezo; Laura M. Cisneros; Neil D'Cruze; Deborah Faria; Adam S. Hadley; S.M. Harris; Brian T. Klingbeil; Urs Kormann; Luc Lens; Guido Fabián Medina-Rangel; José Carlos Morante-Filho; Pieter Ignatius Olivier; S.L. Peters; Anna M. Pidgeon; Danilo Bandini Ribeiro; Christoph Scherber; L. Schneider-Maunoury; Nicolás Urbina-Cardona; James I. Watling; Michael R. Willig; E.M. Wood
Forest edges influence more than half of the world’s forests and contribute to worldwide declines in biodiversity and ecosystem functions. However, predicting these declines is challenging in heterogeneous fragmented landscapes. Here we assembled a global dataset on species responses to fragmentation and developed a statistical approach for quantifying edge impacts in heterogeneous landscapes to quantify edge-determined changes in abundance of 1,673 vertebrate species. We show that the abundances of 85% of species are affected, either positively or negatively, by forest edges. Species that live in the centre of the forest (forest core), that were more likely to be listed as threatened by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), reached peak abundances only at sites farther than 200–400 m from sharp high-contrast forest edges. Smaller-bodied amphibians, larger reptiles and medium-sized non-volant mammals experienced a larger reduction in suitable habitat than other forest-core species. Our results highlight the pervasive ability of forest edges to restructure ecological communities on a global scale.
PLOS ONE | 2015
Tom P. Moorhouse; Cecilia A. L. Dahlsjö; Sandra E. Baker; Neil D'Cruze; David W. Macdonald
Tourism accounts for 9% of global GDP and comprises 1.1 billion tourist arrivals per annum. Visits to wildlife tourist attractions (WTAs) may account for 20–40% of global tourism, but no studies have audited the diversity of WTAs and their impacts on the conservation status and welfare of subject animals. We scored these impacts for 24 types of WTA, visited by 3.6–6 million tourists per year, and compared our scores to tourists’ feedback on TripAdvisor. Six WTA types (impacting 1,500–13,000 individual animals) had net positive conservation/welfare impacts, but 14 (120,000–340,000 individuals) had negative conservation impacts and 18 (230,000–550,000 individuals) had negative welfare impacts. Despite these figures only 7.8% of all tourist feedback on these WTAs was negative due to conservation/welfare concerns. We demonstrate that WTAs have substantial negative effects that are unrecognised by the majority of tourists, suggesting an urgent need for tourist education and regulation of WTAs worldwide.
Ecology and Evolution | 2014
Marion Pfeifer; Veronique Lefebvre; Toby A. Gardner; Víctor Arroyo-Rodríguez; Lander Baeten; Cristina Banks-Leite; J. Barlow; Matthew G. Betts; Joerg Brunet; Alexis Cerezo; Laura M. Cisneros; Stuart J. Collard; Neil D'Cruze; Catarina da Silva Motta; Stéphanie Duguay; Hilde Eggermont; Felix Eigenbrod; Adam S. Hadley; Thor Hanson; Joseph E. Hawes; Tamara Heartsill Scalley; Brian T. Klingbeil; Annette Kolb; Urs Kormann; Sunil Kumar; Thibault Lachat; Poppy Lakeman Fraser; Victoria Lantschner; William F. Laurance; Inara R. Leal
Habitat fragmentation studies have produced complex results that are challenging to synthesize. Inconsistencies among studies may result from variation in the choice of landscape metrics and response variables, which is often compounded by a lack of key statistical or methodological information. Collating primary datasets on biodiversity responses to fragmentation in a consistent and flexible database permits simple data retrieval for subsequent analyses. We present a relational database that links such field data to taxonomic nomenclature, spatial and temporal plot attributes, and environmental characteristics. Field assessments include measurements of the response(s) (e.g., presence, abundance, ground cover) of one or more species linked to plots in fragments within a partially forested landscape. The database currently holds 9830 unique species recorded in plots of 58 unique landscapes in six of eight realms: mammals 315, birds 1286, herptiles 460, insects 4521, spiders 204, other arthropods 85, gastropods 70, annelids 8, platyhelminthes 4, Onychophora 2, vascular plants 2112, nonvascular plants and lichens 320, and fungi 449. Three landscapes were sampled as long-term time series (>10 years). Seven hundred and eleven species are found in two or more landscapes. Consolidating the substantial amount of primary data available on biodiversity responses to fragmentation in the context of land-use change and natural disturbances is an essential part of understanding the effects of increasing anthropogenic pressures on land. The consistent format of this database facilitates testing of generalizations concerning biologic responses to fragmentation across diverse systems and taxa. It also allows the re-examination of existing datasets with alternative landscape metrics and robust statistical methods, for example, helping to address pseudo-replication problems. The database can thus help researchers in producing broad syntheses of the effects of land use. The database is dynamic and inclusive, and contributions from individual and large-scale data-collection efforts are welcome.
Amphibia-reptilia | 2009
Achille P. Raselimanana; Zoltán T. Nagy; Neil D'Cruze; Frank Glaw; Miguel Vences; Michael Franzen; Julia P. G. Jones
We describe Liophidium maintikibo, a new species of pseudoxyrhophiine snake from the dry deciduous forest of Kirindy, western Madagascar. The new species is related to Liophidium therezieni but differs by a lower number of ventral scales and several details of colouration. Its ventral scales have a large central black patch which is missing from the subcaudals. This predominantly black ventral side is similar to that of another enigmatic Malagasy snake, Pararhadinaea melanogaster, for which we here present evidence for two new locality records, Ankarana and Daraina in northern Madagascar. The phylogenetic relationships of P. melanogaster (the sole representative of a monotypic genus) have so far not been clarified. Similarities to Liophidium maintikibo may indicate affinities to Liophidium ,b utP. melanogaster differs from this new species by a lower number of ventrals, subcaudals, number of maxillary teeth and by a different dorsal colouration.
BioScience | 2017
Ruth E. Feber; Eva M. Raebel; Neil D'Cruze; David W. Macdonald; Sandra E. Baker
The media can reflect social opinion and influence debate and policy. Wild vertebrate welfare issues are regularly reported in the media, but there has been no study of the type and frequency of their coverage. We compiled a list of potential wild vertebrate welfare issues in the United Kingdom, recording how often each issue was mentioned in the media during 2014. Lethal wildlife management issues were most frequently reported, whereas issues that received little coverage included marine debris, commercial fishing, and pollution. Overall, the media tended more frequently to report welfare issues that involved intent to harm an animal, were illegal, or occurred in the terrestrial environment. Insofar as media reporting may lead to improvements in the welfare of wild animals, greater effort may be required to provoke media interest in welfare issues that do not involve intent to harm, are legal, or occur in marine environments.
Conservation Letters | 2014
Özgün Emre Can; Neil D'Cruze; David L. Garshelis; John Beecham; David W. Macdonald
Journal of Zoology | 2010
Jörn Köhler; Miguel Vences; Neil D'Cruze; Frank Glaw
Conservation Letters | 2017
Tom P. Moorhouse; Margaret Balaskas; Neil D'Cruze; David W. Macdonald
Journal of Sustainable Tourism | 2017
Tom P. Moorhouse; Neil D'Cruze; David W. Macdonald