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 current rapid expansion of urban areas causes dramatic environmental destruction. This anthropogenic environmental change, so-called urbanization, has become one of the main causes of the local and global scale biodiversity loss. However, some animals have been colonizing and are likely to thriving in urban environments. I am interested in understanding of how these animals adapt/adjust to the urban environments and how can we coexist with them. I started and have been running "urban squirrel project" with colleges in Japan since 2013. Using squirrel as mammal model, we try to understand how wildlife respond to urban environments from multiple aspects such as behavior, physiology, and cognition. We also aim to apply our findings to management and urban planning.
More specifically, I am looking at
1). Behavioral responses to cope with the urban environment
2). Habituation and sensitization to humans
3). The consequences of behavioral modifications
4). Implication to wildlife management practice
5). Implication to park management and planning
INTERNATIONAL PROJECTS
I've been working on the project using yellow-bellied marmot in and around Rocky Mountain Biological Laboratory, Colorado, USA to look at the effect of habituation and sensitization to humans (2019 - now).
I'm also working with researches in other countries such as Finland, Germany, and the UK to see how red squirrels response to the urbanization at the global scale.
