My research spans migration and dispersal ecology, biodiversity monitoring, land use policy, and human-wildlife interactions — with a particular interest in how climate change, human activities and land use shape the way animals move through the world and impact their populations.
I came to ecology after a ten-year career as an aircraft mechanic in the Royal Air Force. I studied Natural Sciences with the Open University before completing an undergraduate biology degree and PhD at the University of St Andrews, where my doctoral research focused on the migration and dispersal ecology of the Cyprus wheatear.
Since then I’ve worked as part of EuropaBON reviewing the use of novel technologies in biodiversity monitoring, the COVID-19 Bio-Logging Initiative investigating wildlife responses to changes in human mobility during lockdown, and carried out a British Ecological Society (BES) Policy Fellowship with the Scottish Government assessing the impacts of agricultural policy on biodiversity. I’m currently contributing to a global initiative aimed at improving human–wildlife coexistence in the world’s unprotected areas and sit on the BES Scottish Policy Group committee.
Rob Patchett 