Wildlife Research Center Fund

The Wildlife Research Center of Kyoto University was founded in 2008 and aims to promote scientific research on endangered large animals that are facing the threat of extinction. Large animals can be particularly vulnerable to such threats given their long lifespan and slow development. These ’slow life histories‘ also make collecting reliable scientific information problematic, so many endangered large animals remain poorly understood despite their importance in biodiversity conservation as ’umbrella species‘.

For example, to study the natural history of long-lived, large mammals such as elephants and orangutans, which live upwards of seventy and fifty years, respectively, we need to maintain field research stations and long-term research projects in their natural habitats for decades. Government research grants are aimed at much shorter projects with immediate expected impacts, and thus cannot completely cover this necessary long-term work. At the same time, financial shortcomings due to recent government budget cuts are even threatening the maintenance and development of our domestic research facilities, although we at Kyoto University and the Wildlife Research Center are trying our best to secure adequate funds for this purpose.

In order to overcome such difficulties, we have now opened the Wildlife Research Center Fund, and we would like to ask for the financial support of everyone concerned with the study of wildlife for biodiversity conservation. We understand that current economic conditions are very limiting, but we humbly put forth our request for aid and sincerely thank you for your understanding and for your generous donations to this fund.