News

A recent paper led by Dr Arik Kershenbaum, a College Associate Professor here in Zoology, describes how both wildlife and humans could benefit from networks of acoustic detectors to monitor tiger activity in Nepal. Here Dr Kershenbaum writes about his group's research, and how a faux tiger skin came in handy.Endangered Bengal tiger populations are …

On 20th November, the Cambridge University Entomological Society ran a symposium, titled ’The Good, the Bad, and the Monstrous: Insects in Mythology, Literature and Media’, at the Department of Zoology. This symposium discussed the portrayal of insects in mythology, literature, and present-day media, with the objective of critiquing and debunking m…

Pollinator Ambassadors, a European charity co-founded by Zoology PhD student Nynke Blömer (Agroecology Group), has recently won grants for two new projects on youth engagement on the topic of pollinators.Together with Biodiversity Action Europe, Pollinator Ambassadors secured funding worth 67,300 euros for the project "Buzzing Futures: Youth Advoca…

Research published in Nature Communications on Thursday 15 January 2026, co-authored by Dr Joseph Millard of our Agroecology Research Group, provides new insights into the threat that invasive alien species pose to terrestrial insects. This is the first study to analyse and quantify the impact of invasive alien species on insects on a global scale.…

Research published today in the journal Science Advances shows that part of the answer lies in a subtle but consequential shift in how individual workers are built.Using a computer vision approach applied to 3D X-ray scans, researchers digitally reconstructed the anatomy of more than 500 ant species and traced how their investment in the cuticle, t…

It was with great sadness that we learnt of the death of Dr Nancy Lane Perham OBE last month at the age of 89.  She was a pioneering cell biologist and a champion of women in science.Nancy was a member of our department and fellow of Girton College from 1968 until her retirement in 2006.  She was an outstanding microscopist and dedicated her career…

A paper published this week, in the journal Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology, led by Dr Tasnuva Ming Khan, Deep-time Ecology Group, supports the theory that there was a single extinction event at the end of the Cretaceous period in Antarctica, due to a catastrophic asteroid impact, rather than gradual extinction running up to it du…

Congratulations to Dr Charles Emogor and Professor Stephen Montgomery, winners of prestigious awards at the Zoological Society of London’s annual awards ceremony yesterday.Professor Montgomery was awarded the Society's Scientific Medal for outstanding contributions to zoology by an early career researcher. Professor Montgomery was a PhD student her…

We’re very pleased to announce that two of our group leaders, Dr Emília Santos and Dr Emily Mitchell have been awarded European Research Council Consolidator Grants (part of the EU’s Horizon Europe programme). These grants are awarded to outstanding scientists who are establishing independent research teams to work on cutting-edge projects. The sel…

A paper lead by Gates Cambridge Scholar Andres Alfonso-Rojas published this week in the Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology, the has attracted widespread press attention.Andres, who is a PhD student here in the Vertebrate Palaeontology Group, studied 12 million year old anaconda fossils, to find they have been giants for over 12 million years.  In c…

We’re delighted to share the news that Prof Rhys Green, Emeritus Honorary Professor of Conservation Science here at the Dept of Zoology has won the Outstanding Contribution Award at the Nature of Scotland Awards 2025.The Award recognises his decades-long contribution to problem-solving conservation science and in particular the development of simpl…

The Cambridge Biotomography Centre, based here in the Department of Zoology, is a leading UK facility for high-resolution 3D imaging using micro-computed tomography (MicroCT) and X-ray tomography. The Centre's scanners allow researchers and industry clients to see internal structures without destroying the objects examined, which include fossils, b…

 Last month 28 students and staff from this Department and the Department of Plant Sciences travelled to the Danum Valley Field Centre in Sabah, Malaysian Borneo for this year’s Tropical Field Course. The course is a great opportunity for students about to start the third year of their undergraduate studies to experience tropical rain forest ecolog…

Thanks to the construction of butterfly banks, Trumpington Meadows Nature Reserve in Cambridge is now a location for cutting-edge research into mitigating the effects of climate change on insects.The research, part of the Banking on Butterflies project, is a collaboration between our Insect Ecology Group led by Prof Ed Turner, the Wildlife Trust fo…

Last week we were delighted to celebrate the appointment of Prof Claire Spottiswoode FRS as Honorary Professor of African Evolutionary Ecology.Prof Spottiswoode’s inaugural lecture, entitled ‘The natural history of a human animal mutualism’ took place on Monday 6 October. It was great to see so many members of the department and friends fill our ma…