Dr Huw Lloyd

Senior Lecturer in Wildlife Ecology

My profile

Biography

I am Senior Lecturer at the Department of Natural Sciences, where I have been working since 2011. Prior to joining Manchester Metropolitan University, I worked for two years as a Conservation Training Officer for a global bird conservation NGO and as a Guest Lecturer at the School of Biology, Newcastle University. I conducted my PhD research on the ecology and conservation of high-Andean Polylepis bird communities in Peru, and have also conducted research on numerous tropical forest bird communities including in cloud forest and lowland tropical forests in Peru, and in fragmented rainforest habitats in Indonesia. I conduct research primarily through building regional, national and international research relationships, helping early-career scientists from developed and developing countries internationalize their science. Since 2009 I have been developing conservation science leadership capacity in over 12 different conservation organizations and academic institutions in Peru, Brazil, China, Ethiopia, Nepal, Thailand and Tonga, providing academic support to undergraduate and postgraduate students, some of whom have gone on to become lecturers, whilst others have gone on the successfully complete or enrol in PhD programs. In the UK I work closely with organisations such as Cheshire Wildlife Trusts and Forestry England.

At MMU, I have recently finished serving as an elected member (Faculty of Science and Engineering) of the Academic Board between 2019 and 2021. I was field course coordinator for the Department of Natural Sciences for six years, and now am Departmental Health and Safety Coordinator, responsible for mentoring and guiding staff, PDRAs and PhD candidates in the development and completion of all field-based research risk assessments. I was external examiner for undergraduate and post-graduate degree courses at the School of Biological Sciences, University of Chester for four years.

My research partnerships in China, specifically with Beijing Normal University developed over the last ten years, now plays a role in MMU’s international strategy, aimed at increasing staff and student mobility between MMU and Chinese institutions, resulting in a university-wide Memorandum of Understanding signed by both institutions, to help increase collaboration across a number of faculties.

Interests and expertise

My main interests are wildlife ecology/biology and behaviour, conservation biology and ornithology. My primary research areas focus is on avian ecology, biology, evolution and conservation but I also work with bats in the UK and primates in Peru. I have particular interests in developing and testing survey methods, particularly acoustic monitoring of bird and bat populations, but also am interested in studies on avian foraging behaviour, factors influencing the outcome of conservation translocations, and understanding how bird species are likely to be impacted by further habitat/climate change.

In China, I have worked with colleagues from numerous universities on how migratory waterbird populations respond to natural, restored and artificial wetland environmental gradients; identifying key prey resources for threatened migratory birds; understanding the impacts of tourism on threatened migratory bird populations in coastal wetlands; quantifying how climate change is predicted to impact populations of forest-dependent bird species; how anthropogenic disturbance can create an ecological trap for habitat-dependent tidal reed-bed specialists; using bioacoustics for monitoring threatened bird species and improving our knowledge on the function of primary song types in species such as Eurasian Cuckoo; and developing new theoretical models on understanding the evolution of avian life-history traits. I have been involved in threatened species-poverty alleviation research in Ethiopia as part of a multidisciplinary research collaboration funded by the Darwin Initiative.

I am an Associate Editor for the open access journal Avian Research and Editorial Board member for the open access journal Watershed Ecology and the Environment, and currently Guest Editor for a special edition of the journal Diversity, on Avian Ecology, Diversity and Population Monitoring

Get in touch

0161 247 1194
E437 John Dalton Building

Teaching

I am currently unit coordinator for two undergraduate units (Conservation Science in Practice, Wildlife Ecology and Behaviour) and one post-graduate unit (Avian Biology and Conservation), and teach across a number of other undergraduate and post-graduate units. For Conservation Science in Practice, I work with Cheshire Wildlife Trust to deliver an evidence-based taught unit with a novel assessment for the students based on the new Environment Bill, whilst the work of the trust is a central focus of the units activities (including lectures from the Director of Conservation and day visits to trust reserves). During my time at MMU I have designed two new residential field courses (South Wales and Portugal) that enable students to develop skills in both traditional biological field techniques, and also more contemporary remote sensing skills such as camera trapping and bioacoustics surveys, and the use of specialist software (e.g. Kaleidoscope, Program DISTANCE). Research-informed teaching is central to my lectures and to the teaching teams I work with. Research output from my international collaborations (e.g. wetland migratory bird ecology and behaviour; impacts of climate change on bird species distributions; threatened species translocations and bird conservation-poverty alleviation research) is utilised for both undergraduate and post-graduate teaching.

Research outputs