University of Nottingham Malaysia
School of Psychology
     
  

Animal Behavior Research

Our Research

Malaysia is one of only two Asian elephant range countries to have two subspecies of the animal and peninsular Malaysia is home to the largest Asian elephant population in Southeast Asia. Malaysia is also a rapidly growing middle-income country with a stated aim of becoming a developed nation by the year 2020.

With the competing demands of economic growth and wildlife conservation playing out, our research aims to study animal behaviour with the goal of enhancing conservation prospects of wild elephants in Malaysia.

 

 

Research Interests

 

Enabling safer driving practices on Malaysian highways

Our research aims to understand how motorists perceive potential hazards such as wild elephants while driving through forest areas. Our study area is in the Belum-Temenggor region of Perak state, along the major arterial highway connecting the east and west coasts of northern peninsular Malaysia.

Our research will use visual and auditory elephant models to explore how motorists perceive roadside wildlife hazards and determine whether motorists can be semantically primed to drive more cautiously and attentively through relevant wildlife stimuli.

 

Investigating elephant antipredator behaviour in peninsular Malaysia and Borneo

Our research aims to investigate how elephants in peninsular Malaysia and Malaysian Borneo react to the simulated presence of dangerous felids, such as tigers and lions. Research aims are to identify the determinants of antipredator behaviour in large mammals such as elephants that are not “predated” upon in the traditional sense of the word and to understand how relaxed selection has affected antipredator behaviour in the Borneo elephant subspecies (Elephas maximus borneensis). Our research will also attempt to capitalize on antipredator behaviour as a tool to mitigate human-elephant conflict in Malaysia.

Collaborations

 

School of Psychology

University of Nottingham Malaysia
Jalan Broga, 43500 Semenyih
Selangor Darul Ehsan
Malaysia

telephone: +6 (03) 8924 8000
fax: +6 (03) 8924 8018

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