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Dr Simon Stuart has been Chair of the Species Survival Commission of the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) since October 2008. He is also a visiting professor in the Department of Biology and Biochemistry at the University of Bath. Prior to this, he was the Senior Species Scientist for both IUCN and Conservation International. In 2004 he completed the Global Amphibian Assessment which highlighted the global phenomenon of amphibian declines and extinctions. Simon has undergraduate and doctoral degrees in conservation biology from the University of Cambridge, and has undertaken fieldwork in Tanzania and Cameroon.

Dr Fiona Mathews is a lecturer in Mammalian Biology at Exeter University.Ìý Dr Mathews’ work investigates how modern challenges, ranging from urban expansion and human population increases, to exposure to wind turbines, light pollution, mobile telephones, and nutritional inadequacies, affect population dynamics. Using an integrated ecological and epidemiological approach, she studies species ranging from humans to wildlife. She is a member of the Environment and Evolution research group and is based at the Streatham Campus in Exeter.

The European Hamster or 'giant hamster' (Cricetus cricetus) is significantly larger than the Syrian hamster or dwarf hamster - which are commonly kept as pets in the UK.Ìý It has brown dorsal fur, a black chest and white patches under their ears.Ìý It is typically found in low-lying farmland with soft loam or loess soils. It is found in Belgium to Alsace in the west, to Russia in the east, and Romania in the south. The animal is widely considered a farmland pest but in many individual European countries it is considered critically endangered.

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Image courtesy of Julien Hoffmann.