Dr. Christos Astaras
· Principal researcher
· Laboratory of Wildlife
Hellenic Agricultural Organization “DEMETER"
Forest Research Institute
570 06 Vassilika, Thessaloniki, Greece
Tel..: 2310 461 172 & 3, 2310 461 411, 2310 461 637 (int. 204)
email: christos.astaras-at-fri.gr
Education
· Bachelor of Arts in Environmental Studies (focus: Conservation Biology) (1999), Middlebury College, USA
· Masters in Environmental Studies (focus: Integrated Conservation) (2003), Faculty of Environmental Studies, York University, Canada
· Doctorate (2009), Centre for Nature Conservation, Faculty of Biology, Georg-August-Universität Göttingen, Germany
Postodoctoral research
· Postdoctoral researcher / Course coordinator (2010-2017), Wildlife Conservation Research Unit (WildCRU), Department of Zoology, University of Oxford, UK [Darwin Initiative grant 20-012]
Field of work
· Wildlife research, conservation and management
Research Interests
· Applied wildlife conservation, with emphasis on terrestrial carnivores and their prey
· Human-wildlife conflict mitigation
· Protected area management
· Use of new technologies for non-invasive monitoring of wildlife and forest crime (i.e. poaching, illegal logging and grazing)
· Improve design and evaluation of anti-poaching strategies
· Interdisciplinarity and evidence-based decision making in the field of conservation biology
Publications