David Lloyd-Jones

BSc (Hons) (U. Canterbury, New
Zealand)

David grew up in southern Tanzania and developed an early interest in natural history. This developed into a passion for ornithology and conservation ecology. He completed his undergraduate studies at the University of Canterbury (2011-2014) in Christchurch, New Zealand, with a focus on ecology and evolution. During this period, he became fascinated with avian brood parasitism, co-evolutionary interactions and avian communication and carried out field work on these topics under the guidance of Prof. Jim Briskie.

In 2015 he returned to East Africa and worked on biodiversity surveys and aerial surveys of large mammals while also developing methods to improve the monitoring of the Serengeti wildebeest population. He also keeping bees and spent time experimenting with beekeeping techniques in Tanzania and training local beekeepers. He is inspired by complex species interactions and the challenge of studying them using field experiments. 

After working in northern Mozambique’s remarkable Niassa National Reserve on an elephant census, he began working in collaboration with Prof. Claire Spottiswoode to study the remarkable mutualism between human honey-hunters and greater honeyguides (Indicator indicator) that lead them to wild bees’ nests. The allure of studying this fascinating human-animal interaction in the wild was irresistible and he is addressing research questions relating to honeyguide-human communication, and the ecosystem effects of honey-hunting at a landscape level. David’s research forms part of the Honeyguides–Humans project at the University of Cambridge and UCT, supported by the European Research Council.

Peer-reviewed Publications:

Cram, D.L., van der Wal, J.E.M., Uomini, N.T., Cantor, M., Afan, A.I., Attwood, M.C., Amphaeris, J., Balasani, F., Blair, C.J., Bronstein, J.L., Buanachique, I.O., Cuthill, R.R.T., Das, J., Daura-Jorge, F.G., Deb, A., Dixit, T., Dlamini, G.S., Dounias, E., Gedi, I.I., Gruber, M., Hoffman, L.S., Holzlehner, T., Isack, H.A., Laltaika, A.E., Lloyd-Jones, D.J., Lund, J., Machado, A.M.S., Mahadevan, L., Moreno, I.B., Nwaogu, C.J., Pereira, V.L., Pierotti, R., Rucunua, S.A., dos Santos, W.F., Serpa, N., Smith, B.D., Sridhar, H., Tolkova, I., Tun, T., Valle-Pereira, J.V.S., Wood, B.M., Wrangham, R.W. and Spottiswoode, C.N. 2022 The ecology and evolution of human-wildlife cooperation. People and Nature, 4, 841–855.

Lloyd-Jones, D.J., St Clair, J.J., Cram, D. L., Yassene, O., van der Wal, J.E. and Spottiswoode, C.N. 2022. When wax wanes: competitors for beeswax stabilize rather than jeopardize the honeyguide–human mutualism. Proceedings of the Royal Society B, 289, 20221443.

Torney, C.J., Laxton, M., Lloyd‐Jones, D.J., Kohi, E.M., Frederick, H.L., Moyer, D.C., Mrisha, C., Mwita, M. and Hopcraft, J.G.C. 2022. Estimating the abundance of a group‐living species using multi‐latent spatial models. Methods in Ecology and Evolution. 

van der Wal, J.E.M., Spottiswoode, C.N., Uomini, N.T., Cantor, M., Daura-Jorge, F.G., Afan, A.I., Attwood, M.C., Amphaeris, J., Balasani, F., Begg, C.M., Blair, C.J., Bronstein, J. L., Buanachique, I.O., Cuthill, R.R.T., Das, J., Deb, A., Dixit, T., Dlamini, G.S., Dounias, E., Gedi, I.I., Gruber, M., Hoffmann, L.S., Holzlehner, T., Isack, H.A., Laltaika, E.A., Lloyd-Jones, D.J., Lund, J., Machado, A.M.S., Mahadevan, L., Moreno, I.B., Nwaogu, C.J., Pereira, V.L., Pierotti, R., Rucunua, S.A., dos Santos, W.F., Serpa, N., Smith, B.D., Tolkova, I., Tun, T., Valle-Pereira, J.V.S., Wood, B.M., Wrangham, R.W. and Cram, D. L. 2022. Safeguarding human–wildlife cooperation. Conservation Letters. IF: 8.105 

Torney, C.J., Lloyd-Jones, D.J., Chevallier, M., Moyer, D.C., Maliti, H.T., Mwita, M., Kohi. E.M. & Hopcraft, G.C. 2019. A comparison of deep learning and citizen science techniques for counting wildlife in aerial survey images. Methods in Ecology & Evolution

Torney, C.J., Dobson, A.P., Borner, F., Lloyd-Jones, D. J., Moyer, D., et al. 2016, Assessing Rotation-Invariant Feature Classification for Automated Wildebeest Population Counts. Plos One 11(5) e0156342 

Lloyd-Jones, D. J. and Briskie, J. V. 2016, Mutual Wattle Ornaments in the South Island Saddleback (Philesturnus carunculatus) Function as Armaments. Ethology 122: 61-71. 

Khwaja, N. and Lloyd-Jones, D. J. 2015. Eurasian blackbird (Turdus merula) nest parasitised by song thrush (T. philomelos). Notornis 62: 41-44.

Lloyd-Jones, D. J. 2014. Ultrasonic harmonics in the calls of rock wren (Xenicus gilviventris). Nortornis 61: 165-169.

Other publications:

Lloyd-Jones, D. J. and Moyer, D. C. 2018, Estimate of 2015 Serengeti wildebeest population and an evaluation of using citizen science counters for the enumeration of wildebeest in aerial images. Technical report, Tanzania Wildlife Research Institute (TAWIRI), Arusha: Tanzania.

Grossmann, F., D’ambanguine, T., Deffontaines, J., Lloyd-Jones, D.J. 2017, Aerial survey of elephant, other wildlife and human activity in the Niassa National Reserve, Dry Season 2016. Technical Report, Wildlife Conservation Society: New York.