Ecology of Predator Communities

This project is available for public Spotting but Trapping is restricted. If you would like to join this project as a Trapper please contact us at info@mammalweb.org.

A collaborative research project led by the Universities of Aberdeen and St Andrews with the overarching goal of studying the structure and dynamics of mammalian predator communities, based in the Cairngorms Connect landscape in Scotland.

In Great Britain, predators exist along a gradient of community intactness and, in many systems, include recovering and declining species simultaneously. Mammalian predators include red foxes, badgers, pine marten and, in some areas, wild and wild-living cats. The goal of our research is to study the inter- and intra-guild structure and dynamics of UK predator communities, including their responses to species reintroductions and humans in the landscape.

The aims are to: 1) generate baseline information about predators and prey, 2) develop efficient methods for predator and prey monitoring, and 3) examine patterns of co-existence.