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katherine whitehousetedd

Senior Lecturer

School of Animal Rural & Environmental Sciences

Staff Group(s)
Animal and Equine

Role

Dr Whitehouse-Tedd is a Senior Visiting Fellow with the School of Animal, Rural and Environmental Sciences. She is based in Aotearoa New Zealand where she works on conservation and sustainability projects. In her spare time, Kat collaborates remotely with research staff at NTU and provides supervisory contributions to PhD students in conservation biology, zoo biology and human-wildlife interactions. As this position is an honorary role, Kat is unable to act as Director of Studies on PhD programmes or supervisor on MSc/MRes programmes, but instead provides assistance and support as an external advisor or co-supervisor. Students with research proposals should contact a full time member of staff.

Career overview

After completing degrees in ecology and veterinary nursing, Dr Whitehouse-Tedd spent two years living in South Africa where she worked with a cheetah conservation organisation. Following this, Kat returned to New Zealand to complete a PhD investigating captive cheetah health and dietary provision before moving to the Czech Republic for work.  Kat moved to the UK in 2008 where she took up a management role in a zoo before undertaking a post-doc in nutritional science. In 2013, Kat moved to the United Arab Emirates to work in a research position for the Sharjah government, but returned to the UK in 2016 to take up a role with Nottingham Trent University. Whilst at NTU, Kat completed post-graduate training in psychological research methods and enjoyed exploring inter-disciplinary research opportunities. Upon returning to Aotearoa New Zealand in 2021, Kat now works as an independent consultant and researcher, but she has continued to collaborate with NTU via her honorary role. Kat is an invited reviewer for multiple conservation and animal science journals and supervises a range of PhD and MSc/MRes projects relating to endangered species management and conservation.

Research areas

Dr. Whitehouse-Tedd’s background and key professional interest is in carnivore conservation. Her research focuses on human-wildlife interactions, including completing investigations in both wild and captive settings. Dr. Whitehouse-Tedd is particularly interested in human-carnivore coexistence, vulture conservation, and the health and nutrition of zoo carnivores. Her research includes field work in South Africa and the Arabian peninsula, as well as a range of projects working with collaborators in zoos and conservation NGOs around the world. Kat’s zoo-based research previously concentrated on captive carnivore nutrition to improve health and welfare, but now primarily involves the study of human-animal interactions in zoos as they relate to conservation-education and the zoo visitor experience. For the past decade, Dr. Whitehouse-Tedd has specialised in the use of livestock guarding dogs as a means of encouraging livestock-carnivore coexistence, with particular focus on conservation outcomes for endangered felid species.

Current research projects include:

  • Human-wildlife coexistence strategies in southern Africa
  • In situ predator conservation techniques including non-lethal predator control methods
  • Vulture conservation
  • Zoo education and ambassador animal efficacy
  • Captive carnivore (mammalian and avian) nutrition

Previous research projects have included:

  • Livestock guarding dog effectiveness
  • Diet and gastrointestinal health in captive cheetahs
  • Environmental enrichment strategies in captive cheetahs
  • Joint health nutraceuticals in captive zoo animal heath
  • Endoparasite control in captive cheetahs
  • Neonatal cheetah cub growth and development
  • Hindgut fermentation in captive cheetah nutrition and health
  • Domestic cat and dog nutrition

Dr. Whitehouse-Tedd has previously supervised students involved in field research in South Africa, investigating the effectiveness of livestock guarding dogs as a method of non-lethal predator control, as well as students investigating a variety of conservation topics in South Africa, China, Europe and the UK. Opportunities to carry out postgraduate research towards an MPhil / PhD exist in mammalian and avian carnivore species, specifically human-carnivore interactions (including conflicts). Further information may be obtained from the NTU Graduate School.

PhD programmes supervised by Dr. Whitehouse-Tedd:

  • Beth Smith. The ecological effects of livestock guarding dogs.
  • Chloe Lucas. Evaluating human-carnivore coexistence using a multi-stakeholder socio-ecological approach.
  • Evangelos Achilleos. Determining the conservation impact of strategies currently employed for the Hyacinth macaw.

External PhD supervision:

  • Karla Esparza Guerrero. The influence of dietary fibre on behaviour, welfare and gut health of captive tigers (Panthera tigris). University of Nottingham, UK.
  • Dr. Sarah Depauw, 2014 (completed). Animal Fibre: A key factor for gastrointestinal health of an obligate carnivore, the cheetah. University of Ghent, Belgium.

External activity

  • Current editorial board memberships: Frontiers in Conservation Science (Human-Wildlife Dynamics)
  • Associate Editor, Zoo Biology 2016-2020 and Journal of Vertebrate Biology 2019 - 2022.
  • Reviewer for Ecology & Evolution, Microorganisms, Folia Zoologica, Animals, Research in Veterinary Science, Journal of Zoo & Wildlife Medicine, Journal of Animal Physiology and Animal Nutrition, International Zoo Yearbook, Journal of Equine Veterinary Science, and Zoo Biology
  • Invited author on the 2015 revisions to the Cheetah Species Survival Plan Animal Care Manual (nutrition), and contributor to the 2017 EAZA Best Practice Guidelines for Cheetah (nutrition).
  • Expert Assessor for Jonas, C.S., Timbrell, L.L., Young, F., Petrovan, S.O., Bowkett, A.E. & Smith, R.K. (2018) Management of Captive Animals:Promoting health and welfare in captive carnivores (felids, canids and ursids) through feeding practices. Pages 495-523 in: W.J. Sutherland, L.V. Dicks, N. Ockendon, S.O. Petrovan & R.K. Smith (eds) What Works in Conservation 2018. Open Book Publishers, Cambridge, UK.
    https://doi.org/10.11647/OBP.0131.09.
  • Member of the Society for Conservation Biology

Sponsors and collaborators

Current and recent research is being conducted with the collaboration, funding and/or support of:

Previous research has been conducted with the collaboration, funding and/or support of:

Current and previous university collaborations include

  • Dr. Jacqueline Abell, Coventry University, UK
  • Prof. Russell Hill, Durham University, UK
  • Dr. Louis Phipps, Vulture Conservation Fund, Switzerland
  • Prof. Tadasu Urashima, Obihiro University of Agriculture and Veterinary Medicine, Japan
  • Dr. Arjun Amar, Percy Fitzpatrick Institute of African Ornithology, South Africa
  • Dr. Heidi Prozesky, Stellenbosch University, South Africa
  • Professor Geert Janssens’ research group at the University of Ghent, Belgium
  • Dr. Veronique Dermauw, Institute of Tropical Medicine, Belgium
  • Dr Lisa Yon, University of Nottingham, UK
  • Professor Bisong Yue, Sichuan University, People's Republic of China
  • Dr Anne Becker, Ross University, St. Kitts
  • Dr Sarah Depauw, Odisee University College, Belgium
  • Dr Guido Bosch, Wageningen University, the Netherlands.
  • Professor Stephen Barnes at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, USA

Publications

A selection of recent publications:

Deterring and repelling wildlife. In: Wildlife Research in Australia. Smith, B.P. Snijder, L., Tobajas, J., Whitehouse-Tedd, K., van Bommel, L., Pitcher, B., Cassady St. Clair, C., Appleby, R.G., Jordan, N.R., Greggor, A.L. 2022. CSIRO Publishing: Melbourne, Australia. Chapter 11, pp211-214.

Dogs and conservation: emerging themes and considerations (Editorial). Whitehouse-Tedd, K., Richards, N., Parker, M. 2021.Journal of Vertebrate Biology 69(3). E2004.1-4.

Conservation education: are zoo animals effective ambassadors and is there any cost to their welfare? Spooner, S.L., Farnworth, M.J., Ward, S.J. and Whitehouse-Tedd, K.M., 2021.Journal of Zoological and Botanical Gardens, 2 (1), pp. 41-65. ISSN 2673-5636

Assessing the visitor and animal outcomes of a zoo encounter and guided tour program with ambassador cheetahs. Whitehouse-Tedd, K., Lozano-Martinez, J., Reeves, J., Page, M., Martin, J.H., Prozesky, H. 2021. Anthrozöos.

Evaluation of the use of psychometric scales in human-wildlife interaction research to determine attitudes and tolerance towards wildlife. Whitehouse-Tedd, K., Abell, J., Dunn, A. (2020). Conservation Biology. ISSN: 1523-1739

Livestock guarding dogs enable human-carnivore coexistence: first evidence of equivalent carnivore occupancy on guarded and unguarded farms. Spencer, K., Sambrook, M., Bremner-Harrison, S., Cilliers, D., Yarnell, R.W., Brumner, R., Whitehouse-Tedd, K. (2019).Biological Conservation. ISSN 0006-3207

Reported livestock guarding dog-wildlife interactions: implications for conservation and animal welfare. Whitehouse-Tedd, K., Wilkes, R., Stannard, C., Wettlaufer, D., Cilliers, D. (2019) .Biological Conservation. ISSN 0006-3207

See all of Katherine Whitehouse-Tedd's publications...

Press expertise

  • Human-wildlife coexistence and conflict mitigation (especially African carnivores)
  • Zoo animal nutrition
  • Human-animal encounters in zoos (e.g. ambassador animals)
  • Conservation education in zoos