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My name is Cécile Vanpé. 

I am a researcher in wildlife ecology & conservation.
My research interests encompass the ecology, evolution, genetics, behaviour and conservation of wild populations of large mammals and birds. I aim at providing management authorities with scientifically based knowledge to meet the challenges facing vertebrate populations, in the context of global changes and biodiversity crisis.

I have worked on a range of Mammal taxa, including ungulates (roe deer, brocket deer, peccaries), carnivores (pumas, jaguars, bears, margays), marsupials (wombats), monotremes (echidnas), pinnipeds (fur seals, elephant seals), perissodactyls (tapirs) and primates (lemurs) in a wide diversity of ecosystems (sub-polar, temperate, tropical, arid, mountains, agro-ecosystems, oceans), as well as on seabirds (especially penguins, petrels, albatrosses and seaducks).

Being born and growing up in the Alps surrounded by mountains, I have always been fascinated by the natural world, and especially animals. That childish fascination has not left me but deepened over the years. Throughout my education, Biology has been the subject which I have been most engaged and enthralled by, it fills me with wonder and awe.

I had the chance for my 1st year of MSc to study Habitat and Wildlife Management at Rimouski University in Quebec (Canada) and then to spend 16 months in Kerguelen (French subantarctic islands) as an ornithologist, carrying out field work on albatrosses, penguins, seals, petrels, ... These amazing experiences further developed my passion for animal ecology, behaviour, conservation and evolution. During my 2nd year of MSc (2003), I studied community ecology and niche partitioning among seabirds and sea mammals using stomach content analyses and stable isotopes.

My PhD (defended in 2007), permformed at CEFS-INRA and Grimsö Wildlife Research Station (Sweden) under the co-direction of Mark Hewison and Henrik Andrén, focused on mating system and sexual selection in the European roe deer. I used molecular tools in combination with field ecology to assign paternities and investigate the main determinants of male reproductive success in this cervid species.

I then performed several postdocs in various parts of the world (New Zealand, French Guiana, Australia, Portugal, France), studying behavioural ecology, population genetics and/or population dynamics of a range of mammals (Tasmanian echidnas and wombats, Amazonian large mammals, Malagasy lemurs).

From December 2012 to February 2017, I was the principal investigator of an ANR research project at LBBE-CNRS in Jean-Michel Gaillard's lab, investigating roe deer behavioural plasticity and adaptation to landscape changes.

I started to work on brown bear in 2017, as the assistant group leader of the Pyrenean brown bear project at the Predators and Depredator Animals Unit of the French Hunting and Wildlife Agency (ONCFS). I conducted research projects on the ecology, genetics, dynamics, behaviours and conservation of the Pyrenean brown bear population.

Since 2020, I have been working as a permanent researcher and project leader on terrestrial large carnviores at the French Biodiversity Agency (OFB), working mainly on Pyrenean brown bears.

My research projects on large carnivores currently encompass:
- non-invasive population monitoring (camera trapping, genetic CMR…),
- conservation genetics (genetic diversity, consanguinity, inbreeding depression, effective population size…),
- role in ecosystem functioning and resilience (seed and spore dispersal, nutrient fluxes…),
- trophic and non trophic interactions with other species (diet, trophic level, predation, competition, facilitation…),
- landscape connectivity assessment,
- spatial ecology (dispersal, habitat use and selection, home ranges, movements…),
- impacts of human activities (human disturbance through outdoor activities, habitat fragmentation…),
- coexistence with humans (depredations on livestock, human perception, human-bear encounters, interactions with hunting, socio-ecological adequation, ecosystem services…),

- population viability,
- translocation and reintroduction programs.