Thomas Moorhouse

Conservation Ecologist

Tom has studied many aspects of ecology and conservation, driven by a love of wildlife and fieldwork, and his interest in problem solving. For his doctorate he studied populations of water voles at Oxford University, and went on to run a water vole reintroduction programme, resulting in seven new populations in Oxfordshire. He feels that conservation as a discipline, however, is steadily moving away from single-species studies, recognising that the causes of the majority of conservation issues have their origin in humans’ behaviour. Tom now works to understand how humans as consumers influence wildlife – and whether we can in turn influence those consumption choices to make them more sustainable. Before coming to Oxford he studied Biological Sciences at Durham University and for an MSc in Ecology and Environmental Management at the University of York. Most of his outreach activities take place through his separate career as an award winning children’s author, writing animal fiction and talking to school children about wildlife.