Dr Daniel Villar

Biography	I am an ecologist and conservation biologist interested in how people, animals, and landscapes change as they interact with each other. At Durham, I am studying how traditional ecological knowledge is changing in response to climate change, and the ecological consequences of changing biocultural practices amongst indigenous people worldwide. I completed my DPhil at the Department of Biology, University of Oxford, in 2025, focused on the conservation of the Lake Titicaca Grebe (Rollandia microptera), an understudied endemic EDGE species only found in the Lake Titicaca basin. As part of this project, I am integrated ethnobiological, behavioural, political, and historic elements of the bird and its landscapes to attempt to have a more holistic conservation program for it. Before my doctorate, I have done work in behavioural ecology of North American field crickets under Nathan Bailey at the University of St. Andrews, paleoecology of Nicaragua under Will Harvey and Elizabeth Jeffers at Oxford, and phylogenetics of mollusks under Jerry Harasewych at the Smithsonian. In addition to my work on traditional ecological knowledge and conservation, I am interested in behavioural ecology, and integrating macroecological approaches into the study of animal behaviour and evolution, especially in birds.

Biography

I am an ecologist and conservation biologist interested in how people, animals, and landscapes change as they interact with each other. At Durham, I am studying how traditional ecological knowledge is changing in response to climate change, and the ecological consequences of changing biocultural practices amongst indigenous people worldwide. I completed my DPhil at the Department of Biology, University of Oxford, in 2025, focused on the conservation of the Lake Titicaca Grebe (Rollandia microptera), an understudied endemic EDGE species only found in the Lake Titicaca basin. As part of this project, I am integrated ethnobiological, behavioural, political, and historic elements of the bird and its landscapes to attempt to have a more holistic conservation program for it. Before my doctorate, I have done work in behavioural ecology of North American field crickets under Nathan Bailey at the University of St. Andrews, paleoecology of Nicaragua under Will Harvey and Elizabeth Jeffers at Oxford, and phylogenetics of mollusks under Jerry Harasewych at the Smithsonian. In addition to my work on traditional ecological knowledge and conservation, I am interested in behavioural ecology, and integrating macroecological approaches into the study of animal behaviour and evolution, especially in birds.