Å·ÃÀ¾ÞÈé

Skip to content
Louise Gentle

Dr Louise Gentle

Principal Lecturer

School of Animal Rural & Environmental Sciences

Staff Group(s)
Environment

Role

Dr Gentle is a Principal Lecturer and Leader of the Conservation provision for the School, including BSc (Hons) Wildlife Conservation BSc (Hons) Ecology & Conservation and BSc (Hons) Zoology. She teaches undergraduate modules on Behavioural & Evolutionary Ecology, and Experimental Design & Data Analysis. In addition, she teaches on the Africa Field Course Module to and supervises undergraduate dissertations and postgraduate research projects in ornithology, behavioural ecology and conservation.

Louise is an active researcher whose interests include Behavioural Ecology and Wildlife Conservation. She is also a science communicator, writing popular science articles for platforms such as and , and has written a chapter in the book .

Career overview

Louise undertook her degree in Biology at the , before studying Conservation Genetics at the . She undertook her D.Phil (PhD) at The 's Edward Grey Institute of Field Ornithology on 'Fat load and social dominance in the great tit, Parus major'. She then worked as a Field Officer for the , a Biodiversity Information Officer for and a Research Assistant on a number of genetic studies. Louise joined Å·ÃÀ¾ÞÈé as a Lecturer, where she undertook a Post Graduate Certificate in Higher Education (PGCHE) and became a Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (SFHEA). She has won several awards for her Outstanding Teaching, including the Vice Chancellor's Teaching Award.

Research areas

Areas of research interest include Behavioural Ecology, Ornithology and Wildlife Conservation.

Competitive fully funded PhD studentships are currently available via www.ntu.ac.uk/phdstudentships.

Current PhD students:

  • (Started 2023): Brown bear (Ursus  arctos) movement behaviour and ecological connectivity in European human-dominated landscapes
  • (Started 2020): Conservation insights from the population genomics of British hedgehogs (Erinaceus europaeus)

Past PhD students:

  • : The reproductive ecology of the barn owl (Tyto alba) in agricultural landscapes
  • : The health effects of lead (Pb) in Scandinavian brown bears (Ursus  arctos)
  • (Started 2021): Hot Dogs – Advancing the Epidemiology and Clinical Definition of Heat-Related Illness in UK Dogs
  • Trophic Cascades: the role of apex predators in Europe’s modern human- dominated landscapes.
  • Using the Random Encounter Model (REM) to estimate rural and urban hedgehog population size.
  • Untangling the roles of prey availability, habitat quality and predation as predictors of hedgehog abundance - in collaboration with PTES
  • Leopard ecology and conservation in Malawi – In collaboration with Carnivore Research Malawi
  • A comparison of urban and rural behaviours in the peregrine falcon (Falco peregrinus)
  • Impacts of illegal human activities on mammal occupancy in Old Oyo National Park, Nigeria
  • Brown hyaena conservation in South Africa
  • Bioacoustics of wolf howls
  • Anna Champneys Factors affecting the survival and distribution of water shrews

Opportunities to carry out postgraduate research towards an MPhil / PhD in the School of Animal, Rural and Environmental Sciences exist, and further information may be obtained from the NTU Doctoral School.

External activity

Dr Gentle is a member of the following societies:

She is also a science communicator, writing popular science articles for platforms such as and and has written a chapter in the book .

Sponsors and collaborators

Current and recent research is conducted with the collaboration, funding and / or support of:

  • University College, Cork
  • University of Oxford
  • University of Sheffield
  • South Å·ÃÀ¾ÞÈéshire Ringing Group

Publications

Root-Gutteridge H, Bencsik M, Chebli M, Gentle LK, Terrell-Nield C, Bourit A and Yarnell RW, Bioacoustics: The Å·ÃÀ¾ÞÈé Journal of Animal Sound and its Recording, 2013 (epub ahead of print)

Gentle LK, Gooden D and Kettel E, British Birds, 2013, 106, 412-413

Root-Gutteridge H, Bencsik M, Chebli M, Gentle LK, Terrell-Nield C, Bourit A and Yarnell RW, Bioacoustics: The Å·ÃÀ¾ÞÈé Journal of Animal Sound and its Recording, 2013 (epub ahead of print)

Simeoni M, Dawson DA, Gentle LK, Coiffait L, Wolff K, Evans KL, Gaston KJ and Hatchwell BJ, Molecular Ecology Resources, 2009, 9(6), 1520-1526

Wilhelm K, Dawson DA, Gentle LK, Horsefield GF, Scholtterer C, Greig C, East M, Hofer H, Tautz D and Burke T, Molecular Ecology Notes, 2003, 3, 360-362

Krupa AP, Jehle R, Dawson, DA, Gentle LK, Gibbs M, Arntzen JW and Burke T, Conservation Genetics, 2002, 3, 85-87

Gentle LK & Gosler AG Proceedings of the Royal Society of London Series B, 2001, 268, 487-491

Green PR, Gentle LK, Peake TM, Scudamore RE, McGregor PK, Gilbert F and Dittrich WH, Behavioural Processes, 1999, 46, 97-102

Press expertise

  • Behavioural Ecology
  • Evolutionary Biology
  • Ornithology
  • Animal Behaviour
  • Wildlife Conservation
  • Ecology
  • Zoology
  • Science Communication

Course(s) I teach on