Deer of the World: Ecology, Conservation and Management

About

Mario Melletti is an Italian freelance wildlife biologist and a member of the African Buffalo Initiative Group and the Wild Pig Specialist Group both part of the International Union for the Conservation of Natures Species Survival Commission. During his Ph.D. and M.Sc. studies he worked at the Department of Animal and Human Biology of the University of Rome La Sapienza Italy and at the Department of Conservation Biology of the Estación Biólogica de Doñana (CSIC-EBD) Sevilla Spain. He has been studying African mammals since 2001. For about 3 years he studied the ecology and behaviour of forest buffalo in Central Africa and he also worked as a field assistant in the Primate Habituation Program (PHP-WWF) of western lowland gorillas in Dzanga-Ndoki National Park (Central African Republic). Mario has also conducted a study on the ecology and behaviour of giant forest hogs and forest elephants in the rainforests of Kibale National Park Semliki Wildlife Reserve and Queen Elizabeth National Park (Uganda). He has also participated in several large mammal surveys in other African countries such as Burkina Faso Zambia and Zimbabwe. He is the editor of seven books on mammalian ecology conservation and management published by Cambridge University Press and Springer Nature and has authored about 70 scientific publications. Stefano Focardi is a senior researcher at the Institute for Complex Systems of the CNR in Florence Italy where he leads the large mammal research team. He is also Professor of Vertebrate Zoology at the University of Florence and Invited Professor at the University of Lyon France. He also leads a collaboration with INRA in Toulouse France. He is the author of 110 scientific articles and 26 environmental management documents. He is also the scientific coordinator of EUROBOAR a European organisation for research into the biology of wild boar and an active member of the EURODEER INITIATIVE. He is a specialist in the biology of roe deer and fallow deer and has organised several international meetings on these two cervid species. His current research interests include ungulate demography avian and mammalian movement ecology and population assessment.