Role
Associate Professor of Conservation Biology
Dr Uzal teaches in the MSc/MRes Applied Ecology and Geospatial Techniques course and is currently supervising seven PhD candidates, two as Director of Studies. Dr Uzal is the chair of the ARES Research Ethics Committee.
Career overview
Dr Uzal obtained his undergraduate and masters degrees in Spain. Following this he worked as a freelance consultant in wolf conservation in Spain. In the UK Dr Uzal has worked for Reading University and The Game and Wildlife Conservancy Trust studying the impacts of farming on invertebrates biodiversity.
Dr Uzal's doctorate was obtained from Bournemouth University, with his research focused on the ecology and impacts of Sika deer (Cervus nippon) on lowland heath plant and animal communities.
After gaining his doctorate Dr Uzal collaborated as Postdoctoral Researcher with the University of Saskatchewan examining the population dynamics and resource use of feral horses on the Sable Island (Nova Scotia, Canada). He has also worked as freelance Adviser for The Deer Initiative. He joined NTU in 2013.
Dr Uzal is a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (HEA) and a Full member of the Chartered Institute of Ecology and Environmental Management (CIEEM)
Research areas
During the last 20 years, Dr Uzal has worked on a number of different projects, including:
- Monitoring grey wolf (Canis Lupus) and brown bear (Ursus arctos) populations across Europe.
- Environmental impact assessments
- Effects of farming on biodiversity of invertebrates
- Use of telemetry techniques (radio and GPS tracking) to study habitat use and ecology of Sika deer (Cervus nippon)
- Effects of grazing and browsing by a large herbivore on plant and animal communities of lowland heath
- Analysis of deer-vehicle collisions in relation to traffic and landscape characteristics
- Population dynamics and resource selection of feral horses on Sable Island (Nova Scotia, Canada)
- Ecotoxicology of brown bear
Dr Uzal's current research areas of interest include Impacts of human disturbance on wildlife, conservation and management of game species, carnivores and endangered species, spatial ecology landscape ecology, remote sensing, relationship plant-herbivores, animal behaviour, population dynamics, telemetry, remote sensing, bioacoustics and restoration ecology.
Current collaborative projects:
- Restoration Ecology. Collaboration with the Center for Ecosystem Restoration Kenya.
- Monitoring of restored and degraded ecosystems. Funded by The Earthwatch Institute.
- Brown Bear ecology. Collaboration with the Biodiversity Research Institute/ University of Oviedo (Spain) and The National Institute for Research and Development in Forestry Marin Dracea (Romania)
- One Mara Research Hub. Member of the Advisory Council.
Current PhD candidates:
- Rachael Leeman (Started 2021): Monitoring wildlife populations using tourist photographs.
- Katie Davies (Started 2021): The consequences of captivity on the behaviour of hedgehogs.
- Consolata Gathoni Gitau (Started 2023): Use of passive acoustic monitoring to evaluate restored and degraded tropical savannah ecosystems in Africa. <Director of Studies>
- Paulina Pawlikowska (Started 2023): Camera trap-based monitoring of the West European Hedgehog- detecting trends in population size.
- Maria del Pino Garcia Sanchez (Started 2023): Accounting for individual variability in landscape connectivity modelling: An integrative framework to identify spatial priorities for brown bear (Ursus arctos) conservation across Europe. <Director of Studies>
- Saskia Goeckeritz (Started 2023): An Assessment of Anthropogenic and Environmental Pressures on Peatland Surfaces in Ireland.
- Alex Nduah Nderi (Started 2024): Biocultural Restoration of Kenyan Ecosystems.
Past PhD candidates:
- Helle Hydeskov (Completion 2024): Exposure and impacts of lead (Pb) in Scandinavian brown bears (Ursus arctos).<Director of Studies>
- Beth Smith (Completion 2024): Interactions between livestock guarding dogs and wildlife in the Carpathian Mountains, Romania.<Director of Studies>
- Shashank Balakrishna (Completion 2023): Barn owl breeding in agricultural landscapes of Great Britain.
- Anthony Seveque (Completion 2021): From global to local: impacts of human disturbance on niche partitioning among carnivores. <Director of Studies>
- Jessica Schaus-Calderon (Completion 2021): Responses of the European hedgehog to urbanisation: impact on population dynamics, animal movement and habitat selection.
- Katie Lee (Completion 2021): Untangling the roles of prey availability, habitat quality and predation as predictors of hedgehog abundance.
- Robert Davis (Completion 2021): The status and behavioural ecology of large carnivores in a human-impacted miombo woodland.
Further opportunities to carry out postgraduate research towards an MPhil/PhD or MSc by research exist in the broad areas of ecology, ecosystem restoration and human-wildlife conflict. Further information regarding MPhil/PhD study may be obtained from the NTU Graduate School.
Sponsors and collaborators
Current research is being conducted with the funding of The Earthwatch Institute, People's Trust for Endangered Species , British Hedgehog Preservation Society
Publications
Publications since 2020:
HYDESKOV, H.B., ARNEMO, J.M., LLOYD MILLS, C., GENTLE, L.K. and UZAL, A., 2024. A global systematic review of lead exposure and its health effects in wild mammals. Journal of Wildlife Diseases. ISSN 0090-3558
RIGOUDY, N., DUSSERT, ...., UZAL, A., VAUTRAIN, V., VIMAL, R., WEBER, J., SPATARO, B., MIELE, V. and CHAMAILLÉ-JAMMES, S., 2023. The DeepFaune initiative: a collaborative effort towards the automatic identification of European fauna in camera trap images. European Journal of Wildlife Research, 69 (6): 113. ISSN 1612-4642
DAVIS, R.S., GENTLE, L.K., MGOOLA, W.O., STONE, E.L., UZAL, A. and YARNELL, R.W., 2022. Using camera trap bycatch data to assess habitat use and the influence of human activity on African elephants (Loxodonta africana) in Kasungu National Park, Malawi. Mammalian Biology. ISSN 1616-5047
DAVIS, R.S., GENTLE, L.K., MGOOLA, W.O., STONE, E.L., UZAL, A. and YARNELL, R.W., 2022. Habitat structure and the presence of large carnivores shape the site use of an understudied small carnivore: caracal ecology in a miombo woodland. Mammal Research. ISSN 2199-2401
UZAL FERNANDEZ, A., MARTINEZ-ARTERO, J., ORDIZ, A., ZARZO-ARIAS, A. and PENTERIANI, V., 2022. Habitat characteristics around dens in female brown bears with cubs are density dependent. Mammal Research. ISSN 2199-2401
DAVIS, R.S., GENTLE, L.K., STONE, E.L., UZAL, A. and YARNELL, R.W., 2022. A review of spotted hyaena population estimates highlights the need for greater utilisation of spatial capture-recapture methods. Journal of Vertebrate Biology, 71 (22017). ISSN 2694-7684
BATEMAN, J. and UZAL, A., 2021. The relationship between the Acoustic Complexity Index and avian species richness and diversity: a review. Bioacoustics. ISSN 0952-4622
TWYNHAM, K., ORDIZ, A. , STØEN, O.-G., RAUSET, G.-R., KINDBERG, J., SEGERSTRÖM, P., FRANK, J. and UZAL, A. , 2021. Habitat selection by brown bears with varying levels of predation rates on ungulate neonates. Diversity, 13 (12): 678. ISSN 1424-2818
SÉVÊQUE, A., GENTLE, L.K. , VICENTE LOPEZ BAO, J., YARNELL, R.W. and UZAL, A. , 2021. The impact of human disturbance on temporal partitioning within carnivore communities. Mammal Review. ISSN 0305-1838
DAVIS, R.S., YARNELL, R.W. , GENTLE, L.K. , UZAL, A. , MGOOLA, W.O. and STONE, E.L., 2021. Prey availability and intraguild competition regulate the spatiotemporal dynamics of a modified large carnivore guild. Ecology and Evolution. ISSN 2045-7758
FINNEGAN, S.P., GANTCHOFF, M.G., HILL, J.E., SILVEIRA, L., TÔRRES, N.M., JÁCOMO, A.T. and UZAL, A., 2021. “When the felid’s away, the mesocarnivores play”: seasonal temporal segregation in a neotropical carnivore guild. Mammalian Biology. ISSN 1616-5047
DAVIS, R.S., STONE, E.L., GENTLE, L.K., MGOOLA, W.O., UZAL, A. and YARNELL, R.W., 2020. Spatial partial identity model reveals low densities of leopard and spotted hyaena in a miombo woodland. Journal of Zoology. ISSN 0952-8369
SMITH, B.R., YARNELL, R.W., UZAL, A. and WHITEHOUSE-TEDD, K., 2020. The ecological effects of livestock guarding dogs (LGDs) on target and non-target wildlife. Journal of Vertebrate Biology. ISSN 2694-7684 (Forthcoming)
ORDIZ, A., MILLERET, C., UZAL, A., ZIMMERMANN, B., WABAKKEN, P., WIKENROS, C., SAND, H., SWENSON, J.E. and KINDBERG, J., 2020. Individual variation in predatory behavior, scavenging and seasonal prey availability as potential drivers of coexistence between wolves and bears. Diversity and Distributions , 12 (9), p. 356. ISSN 1366-9516
BEARMAN-BROWN, L.E., BAKER, P.J., SCOTT, D., UZAL, A., EVANS, L. and YARNELL, R.W., 2020. Over-winter survival and nest site selection of the West-European hedgehog (Erinaceus europaeus) in arable dominated landscapes. Animals, 10 (9): 1449. ISSN 2076-2615
SÉVÊQUE, A., GENTLE, L.K., LÓPEZ‐BAO, J.V., YARNELL, R.W. and UZAL, A., 2020. Human disturbance has contrasting effects on niche partitioning within carnivore communities. Biological Reviews. ISSN 1464-7931
SCHAUS, J., UZAL, A., GENTLE, L., BAKER, P.J., BEARMAN-BROWN, L., BULLION, S., GAZZARD, A., LOCKWOOD, H., NORTH, A., READER, T., SCOTT, D.M., SUTHERLAND, C.S. and YARNELL, R., 2020. Application of the random encounter model in citizen science projects to monitor animal densities. Remote Sensing in Ecology and Conservation . ISSN 2056-3485
ORDIZ, A., UZAL, A., MILLERET, C., SANZ-PÉREZ, A., ZIMMERMANN, B., WIKENROS, C., WABAKKEN, P., KINDBERG, J., SWENSON, J.E. and SAND, H., 2020. Wolf habitat selection when sympatric or allopatric with brown bears in Scandinavia. Scientific Reports , 10 (1): 9941.
Press expertise
- Conservation
- Wildlife
- Hedgehogs
- Large predators
- Wildlife populations
- Use of GIS / GPS / VHF technologies to monitor wildlife
UN Sustainable Development Goals
These are my UN SDGs
