Katie Spencer
Conservation Scholar
- Qualifications BSc, MSc.
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Focus area
Populations
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Location
South East Asia
- Additional Information
Current programme: PhD, Durrell Institute of Conservation and Ecology at the University of Kent, UK.
Funded by ARIES DTP, NERC.
I am a conservation biologist with expertise in camera-trapping, large mammal ecology and human-carnivore coexistence. For my MSc thesis, I investigated the impact of livestock guarding dogs on carnivore ecology in rural South Africa, which sparked my interest in facilitating human-wildlife coexistence.
Southeast Asia is undergoing an extinction crisis. Large mammals are particularly at risk as they are subject to both anthropogenic (i.e. poaching and human-wildlife conflict) and environmental threats (i.e. deforestation and habitat degradation). For example, sun bears (Helarctos malayanus) are losing habitat across their range but they are also poached for traditional medicine, souvenirs and pets, and persecuted as agricultural pests. There is growing concern that if these threats are not considered together in population assessments, strategies to conserve wildlife will be unsuccessful. To address this, I am conducting camera-trap surveys across Kalimantan (Indonesian Borneo) to model sun bear population changes in response to habitat loss and hunting pressure. I will also uncover the motivation for, and extent of, sun bear exploitation in the region. This research will enable targeted conservation strategies to be developed prevent further population declines.
Publications:
Spencer, K., Sambrook, M., Bremner-Harrison, S., Cilliers, D., Yarnell, R.W., Brummer, R. and Whitehouse-Tedd, K., 2020. Livestock guarding dogs enable human-carnivore coexistence: First evidence of equivalent carnivore occupancy on guarded and unguarded farms. Biological Conservation, 241, p.108256.