{"id":8855,"date":"2026-10-07T15:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-10-07T20:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.tarleton.edu\/research\/?p=8855"},"modified":"2026-10-08T17:58:12","modified_gmt":"2026-10-08T22:58:12","slug":"wildlife-science-professor-to-lead-multimillion-dollar-collaboration-with-the-university-of-oxford","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.tarleton.edu\/research\/wildlife-science-professor-to-lead-multimillion-dollar-collaboration-with-the-university-of-oxford\/","title":{"rendered":"Wildlife Science Professor to Lead Multimillion-Dollar Collaboration with the University of Oxford"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"has-tarleton-black-color has-text-color has-link-color wp-elements-1 wp-block-paragraph\">Tarleton State University will strengthen wildlife conservation capacity in Southern Africa through a new collaboration with the University of Oxford\u2019s Wildlife Conservation Research Unit (WildCRU), expanding its international research and educational impact.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-tarleton-black-color has-text-color has-link-color wp-elements-2 wp-block-paragraph\">Dr. T. Wayne Schwertner, professor in Tarleton State\u2019s Department of Wildlife and Natural Resources, will lead WildCRU\u2019s new Collaborative Conservation Training (CCT) Program. Supported by a generous private donation and Tarleton State\u2019s College of Agriculture and Natural Resources, the five-year, $2.1 million initiative will provide accessible, high-quality professional training to conservation practitioners working in some of the world\u2019s most biodiverse regions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"709\" src=\"https:\/\/www.tarleton.edu\/research\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/67\/2026\/10\/Schwertner-brown-hyaena-pic-edited-1024x709.jpg\" alt=\"Man in the Botswana desert.\" class=\"wp-image-8857\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.tarleton.edu\/research\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/67\/2026\/10\/Schwertner-brown-hyaena-pic-edited-1024x709.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/www.tarleton.edu\/research\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/67\/2026\/10\/Schwertner-brown-hyaena-pic-edited-300x208.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.tarleton.edu\/research\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/67\/2026\/10\/Schwertner-brown-hyaena-pic-edited-578x400.jpg 578w, https:\/\/www.tarleton.edu\/research\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/67\/2026\/10\/Schwertner-brown-hyaena-pic-edited-768x532.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.tarleton.edu\/research\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/67\/2026\/10\/Schwertner-brown-hyaena-pic-edited.jpg 1366w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Professor T. Wayne Schwertner, of Tarleton\u2019s Department of Wildlife and Natural Resources, inspects a brown hyaena den in the Kalahari of western Botswana<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-tarleton-black-color has-text-color has-link-color wp-elements-3 wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cOne thing that truly sets Tarleton State\u2019s College of Agriculture and Natural Resources apart is our strong international presence,\u201d Schwertner said. \u201cThis project builds upon our existing relationship with the University of Oxford and WildCRU. It also further leverages Tarleton State\u2019s long history of international collaboration, research and student engagement in southern Africa.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-tarleton-black-color has-text-color has-link-color wp-elements-4 wp-block-paragraph\">Beginning in the Kavango-Zambezi Transfrontier Conservation Area, including Botswana and Zimbabwe, the program will work with local stakeholders to identify training needs. Those initiatives will inform the development and delivery of Oxford-badged courses covering topics such as wildlife monitoring, ecological research, data analysis, conservation planning, community engagement, leadership, communication and project management.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-tarleton-black-color has-text-color has-link-color wp-elements-5 wp-block-paragraph\">Training will be delivered through African universities and research centers as well as online via Oxford\u2019s Department for Biology, creating greater access to specialized instruction without requiring practitioners to travel abroad for extended periods. Over its first five years, the program aims to serve more than 1,200 participants in five Southern African countries: Angola, Botswana, Namibia, Zambia and Zimbabwe.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-tarleton-black-color has-text-color has-link-color wp-elements-6 wp-block-paragraph\">The collaboration builds on Tarleton State\u2019s longstanding engagement in Southern Africa. Since 2012, more than 100 Tarleton State students have participated in the Department of Wildlife and Natural Resources\u2019 summer wildlife field school, one of the university\u2019s longest-running study abroad programs. Additionally, 15 student researchers have conducted undergraduate, masters and doctoral research in the region during this time. Multiple Tarleton State faculty and graduate students also maintain active research programs there.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-tarleton-black-color has-text-color has-link-color wp-elements-7 wp-block-paragraph\">By combining Tarleton State\u2019s regional experience with WildCRU\u2019s global conservation expertise, the CCT Program will develop a scalable model for locally led conservation training while creating new opportunities for collaboration among Tarleton State faculty and students, Oxford researchers and conservation professionals worldwide. In addition to Southern Africa, plans are already underway to expand the program to biodiversity hotspots in South America and East Africa.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Tarleton State University will strengthen wildlife conservation capacity in Southern Africa through a new collaboration with the University of Oxford\u2019s Wildlife Conservation Research Unit (WildCRU), expanding its international research and &#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":102,"featured_media":8857,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"advgb_blocks_editor_width":"","advgb_blocks_columns_visual_guide":"","wds_primary_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8855","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"acf":[],"author_meta":{"display_name":"dvidal","author_link":"https:\/\/www.tarleton.edu\/research\/author\/dvidal-2\/"},"featured_img":"https:\/\/www.tarleton.edu\/research\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/67\/2026\/10\/Schwertner-brown-hyaena-pic-edited-300x208.jpg","coauthors":[],"tax_additional":{"categories":{"linked":["<a href=\"https:\/\/www.tarleton.edu\/research\/category\/uncategorized\/\" class=\"advgb-post-tax-term\">Uncategorized<\/a>"],"unlinked":["<span class=\"advgb-post-tax-term\">Uncategorized<\/span>"]}},"comment_count":0,"relative_dates":{"created":"Posted 2 days ago","modified":"Updated 23 hours ago"},"absolute_dates":{"created":"Posted on October 7, 2026","modified":"Updated on October 8, 2026"},"absolute_dates_time":{"created":"Posted on October 7, 2026 3:00 pm","modified":"Updated on October 8, 2026 5:58 pm"},"featured_img_caption":"","series_order":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tarleton.edu\/research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8855","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tarleton.edu\/research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tarleton.edu\/research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tarleton.edu\/research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/102"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tarleton.edu\/research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8855"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.tarleton.edu\/research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8855\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8868,"href":"https:\/\/www.tarleton.edu\/research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8855\/revisions\/8868"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tarleton.edu\/research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8857"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tarleton.edu\/research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8855"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tarleton.edu\/research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8855"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tarleton.edu\/research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8855"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}