KENTA UCHIDA
Animal Ecology & Photography
Kenta UCHIDA (Ph.D) >>>here is my CV
CURRENT POSITION
・Assistant professor at the University of Tokyo, Graduate School of
Agricultural and Life Sciences
EDUCATION AND RESEARCH EXPERIENCE
・2009-2013 Hokkaido University, BA
・2015-2019 Hokkaido University, PhD
・2019-2022 University of California, Los Angeles,
Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Postdoc
・2022-2023 The University of Tokyo,
Graduate School of Agricultural and Life Sciences, Postdoc
・2023-now The University of Tokyo,
Graduate School of Agricultural and Life Sciences,
Assistant professor
RESEARCH KEYWORDS
Animal Ecology, Animal Behavior, Urban Ecology, Conservation
Research introduction
The rapid expansion of urban areas is causing dramatic environmental change and habitat loss worldwide. This anthropogenic environmental change, known as urbanization, has become one of the major drivers of biodiversity loss at both local and global scales. However, some animals are able to colonize and even thrive in urban environments. I am interested in understanding how these animals adjust and adapt to urban environments, and how we can coexist with them.
Since 2013, I have been leading the “Urban Squirrel Project” in collaboration with colleagues in Japan. Using squirrels as a model mammal, we aim to understand how wildlife respond to urban environments from multiple perspectives, including behavior, physiology, cognition, genetics, parasitology, zoonotic diseases, and urban planning. We also aim to translate our findings into practical applications for wildlife management and urban planning.
More specifically, our research focuses on:
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Behavioral responses that enable wildlife to cope with urbanization
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The processes underlying tolerance to humans and their ecological and societal consequences
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Long-term individual- and population-level responses to urbanization, including survival and fitness
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Implications for urban wildlife management
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Implications for wildlife-friendly urban planning
International projects
I have also been working on yellow-bellied marmots in and around the Rocky Mountain Biological Laboratory in Colorado, USA, since 2019, investigating how habituation and sensitization to humans shape their behavioral responses.
In addition, I collaborate with researchers in several countries, including Finland, Germany, Italy, and the UK, to investigate how red squirrels respond to urbanization across a broad geographic scale.
