Professor David Macdonald, Director of the Wildlife Conservation Research Unit at Oxford, is a leading figure in the field. He has served on many national and international committees. He is currently Chairman of the Darwin Advisory Committee, Chair of Natural England's Science Advisory Committee, and on the Council of the WWF UK and the Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust. He is also Chairman-Elect of Earthwatch. Macdonald is the author of the highly successful Encyclopaedia of Mammals (1984, OUP) and has appeared on many television documentaries.