Daniel Hending

Interests and Expertise

I am a Research Fellow at the Nature-based Solutions Initiative, where I work on the Flourishing Landscapes Programme (FLP). The FLP addresses the triple challenge of livelihoods, climate change, and biodiversity loss at tropical forest frontiers, and I am currently leading ecology research in agricultural-forest matrix landscapes in two biodiversity hotspots: 1) cacao agroecosystems in the Ashanti Region of Ghana (Guinean Forests of West Africa), and 2) coffee agroecosystems in the Central Highlands of Viet Nam (Indo-Burma). My wider scientific research interests are broad, and I have worked on projects within the fields of animal behaviour, conservation, ecology, environmental science, and evolution. I am particularly interested in how organisms respond to environmental changes such as habitat fragmentation and degradation, agricultural expansion, and climate change. Additionally, I am interested in the application of bioacoustics and other remote sensing techniques for non-invasive biodiversity assessment at the ecosystem level. In parallel to my research roles, I am an Associate Editor for multiple scientific journals, a participating member in the IUCN SSC Primate Specialist Group Madagascar Section, an Explorer for the National Geographic Society, and a member of the British Ecological Society, Society for Experimental Biology, and the UK Bioacoustics Special Interest Group.

Background

After completing my BSc in Conservation Biology at the University of the West of England in 2014, I completed a Masters by research (MRes) at the University of Bristol, co-supervised by Bristol Zoological Society. My project focused on the behavioural ecology and conservation of the Endangered Sambirano Mouse Lemur in Northwest Madagascar, which was my first foray into the world of field research, data-analysis, grant applications, and applied conservation. Upon completing my MSc in 2016, I worked with Bristol Zoological Society for two years where I conducted research on the impact of vanilla cultivation on native floral and faunal biodiversity in the SAVA Region of Madagascar. In 2018 I started my PhD at the University of Bristol (also co-supervised by Bristol Zoological Society). My PhD research was heavily impacted by the Covid-19 pandemic, and I was unable to conduct fieldwork, so I utilised published data, meta-analyses, and ecological niche models to investigate the conservation biogeography of Madagascar’s cryptic cheirogaleid lemurs. In parallel, I also started a project focusing on forest fragmentation and habitat degradation effects on the demography, behaviour, and physiological health of nocturnal lemur populations in the Sahamalaza-Iles Radama National Park, Madagascar. After completing my PhD in mid-2021 I worked for five months as a Postdoc at the University of Bristol, before moving to the University of Oxford to work as a Postdoctoral Researcher studying seismic communication in African Elephants in Kenya in my previous post.