About me.

I am an Ecologist. My main research projects have focused on Banded Mongoose group dynamics, Grey Mouse Lemur breeding, Social Spider colony demography, Chimpanzee social dynamics, and most recently Game Animal Stress Physiology, including work with capture and de-horning of white rhinoceros (Ceratotherium simum). My field research has been mostly based in Uganda, Madagascar, and South Africa. However, latterly I managed to fit in some biodiversity research in the Highlands of Scotland relating to Wild Boar with rewilding charity Trees for Life. I teach at the School of Applied Sciences, Edinburgh Napier University, in Scotland. I studied for my PhD with Professor Tim Clutton-Brock at the University of Cambridge, and my BSc in Zoology at the University of Edinburgh.

As a writer, alongside my research paper publications in scientific journals, I have magazine articles published in BBC Wildlife, Africa Geographic, BBC Knowledge, Outdoor Photography and Biosphere magazines, and online with Earth Archives and The Conversation. I am lead contributor to the Herpestidae (mongoose) section of The Handbook of the Mammals of the World Volume I (Carnivores; Lynx Edicions Publishers), lead author of the IUCN (International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources) Species Account for the Banded Mongoose, and co-authored the Banded Mongoose species account in The Mammals of the World Volume V (Carnivores, Pangolins, Equids and Rhinoceroses; Bloomsbury Publishers). My most recent writings relate to rhino poaching and wildlife crime, mongoose social dynamics, the ethics and welfare of cull of grey squirrels, and dinosaur footprints and eggs.

I also Blog, including my thoughts on palaeontology and palaeoecology, and Ray Harryhausen.

As a photographer, I have photos published in BBC Wildlife Magazine, Africa Geographic Magazine, Biosphere Magazine, Outdoor Photography Magazine, Lynx Handbook of the Mammals of the World, online with EarthArchives and The Conversation, and on the webpages of Scottish Natural Heritage, with images also used by the British Ecological Society (including cover image of their Strategic Plan). I was formerly signed up with and represented by the OSF (Oxford Scientific Films)/Photolibrary image library.

As an ecologist and lecturer at Edinburgh Napier University, the natural world is the focal-point of my life. I see my writing and photography as complementary to my work as a scientist. The natural world, through biodiversity and landscape (geodiversity), can be as beautiful and emotionally inspirational as it can be fascinating to understand and crucial to manage and conserve. If my writing and photography can encourage interest, awe or concern for nature in others, then I have achieved my goal.

Interests & expertise: ecology, animal behaviour, evolution, biodiversity conservation, physiology, animal welfare, behavioural ecology, rewilding, geodiversity & palaeoecology.

Links

Jason Gilchrist Research

Magazine Articles+

Photo Galleries

Blog