Andrew Tilker, Dr. rer. nat.
Species Conservation Coordinator
Education
B.S., Midwestern State University
M.S., University of Texas
PhD, Leibniz Institute for Zoo and Wildlife Research
Dr. Andrew Tilker works on the conservation of endangered mammal species. In this role he works with local partners to reduce threats in key sites, creates strategic partnerships to catalyze conservation action for threatened mammals, and helps implement robust biodiversity and threat monitoring to inform adaptive management. He is especially interested in the conservation of overlooked and little-known mammal species, and in building rewilding efforts to restore depleted mammal communities.
Prior to joining Re:wild, Andrew conducted his doctoral research in Vietnam and Laos, where he helped set up the first landscape-scale biodiversity monitoring system in the Annamites. The results of this work provided the first conservation baselines for these areas, and insights into the ecology and conservation of threatened Annamite species. He remains actively involved in the conservation of Annamite endemic mammals.
In between work and travel, Andrew tries to spend as much time as possible in the field. He has been fortunate enough to be involved in the scientific rediscovery of two lost species.
Tilker, A., Niedballa, J., Viet, H. L., Abrams, J. F., Marescot, L., Wilkinson, N., ... & Wilting, A. (2024). Addressing the Southeast Asian snaring crisis: Impact of 11 years of snare removal in a biodiversity hotspot. Conservation Letters, e13021.
Sinovas, P., Alexiou, I., Roberts, O., Holden, J., Chantha, N., & Tilker, A. (2024). Status and conservation implications of a newly discovered large-antlered muntjac population in Cambodia. Endangered Species Research, 53, 493-498.
Nguyen, A., Tilker, A., Le, D., Niedballa, J., Pflumm, L., Pham, X. H., ... & Wilting, A. (2024). Ground‐dwelling mammal and bird diversity in the southern Annamites: Exploring complex habitat associations and the ghost of past hunting pressure. Conservation Science and Practice, 6(4), e13093.
Rusman, M., Sikhounmeuang, S., Phommachak, A., Pathoummavan, S., Ngonephetsy, K., Valao, M., ... & Tilker, A. (2023). A recent record of the Annamite striped rabbit Nesolagus timminsi in a local market in southern Lao PDR. Mammalia, 87(6), 615-618.
Bonenfant, C., Rutschmann, A., Burton, J., Boyles, R., García, F., Tilker, A., & Schütz, E. (2023). Cast away on Mindoro island: lack of space limits population growth of the endangered tamaraw. Animal Conservation, 26(4), 546-557.
Nguyen, A. T., Tilker, A., Le Khac, Q., & Le, M. (2023). New records of the Annamite striped rabbit in Ngoc Linh, Quang Nam and Kon Tum provinces, Vietnam. Mammalia, 87(4), 374-378.
Schmitz, O. J., Sylvén, M., Atwood, T. B., Bakker, E. S., Berzaghi, F., Brodie, J. F., ... Tilker, A . . . & Ylänne, H. (2023). Trophic rewilding can expand natural climate solutions. Nature Climate Change, 13(4), 324-333.
Tilker, A., & Sinovas, P. (2023). Reading the signs: Camera‐trapping provides new insights on scent marking in the large‐antlered muntjac (Muntiacus vuquangensis). Ecology and Evolution, 13(1), e9692.
Appleton, M. R., Courtiol, A., Emerton, L., Slade, J. L., Tilker, A., Warr, L. C., ... & Long, B. (2022). Protected area personnel and ranger numbers are insufficient to deliver global expectations. Nature Sustainability, 5(12), 1100-1110.
Niedballa, J., Axtner, J., Döbert, T. F., Tilker, A., Nguyen, A., Wong, S. T., ... & Wilting, A. (2022). imageseg: An R package for deep learning‐based image segmentation. Methods in Ecology and Evolution, 13(11), 2363-2371.
Alexiou, I., Abrams, J. F., Coudrat, C. N., Nanthavong, C., Nguyen, A., Niedballa, J., ... & Tilker, A. (2022). Camera-trapping reveals new insights in the ecology of three sympatric muntjacs in an overhunted biodiversity hotspot. Mammalian Biology, 102(2), 489-500.
Nguyen, T. V., Wilting, A., Niedballa, J., Nguyen, A., Rawson, B. M., Nguyen, A. Q., ... & Tilker, A. (2022). Getting the big picture: Landscape‐scale occupancy patterns of two Annamite endemics among multiple protected areas. Conservation Science and Practice, 4(3), e620.
Wilting, A., Nguyen, T. V., Axtner, J., Nguyen, A., Schmidt, A., Le, M., ... Tilker, A . . . & Fickel, J. (2022). Creating genetic reference datasets: Indirect sampling of target species using terrestrial leeches as sample “collectors”. Environmental DNA, 4(2), 311-325.
Krause, T., & Tilker, A. (2022). How the loss of forest fauna undermines the achievement of the SDGs. Ambio, 51(1), 103-113.
Nguyen, A., Tilker, A., Le, D., Le, H. V., Le, S. V., Luu, T. H., ... & Wilting, A. (2021). New records and southern range extension of the Annamite striped rabbit Nesolagus timminsi in Vietnam. Mammalia, 85(5), 417-421.
Van Tran, D., Tien, T. V., Nguyen, A., Van, C. P., & Tilker, A. (2021). New records of the forest musk deer Moschus berezovskii in Viet Nam revealed by camera traps. Oryx, 55(4), 494-495.
Nguyen, T. V., Tilker, A., Nguyen, A., Hörig, L., Axtner, J., Schmidt, A., ... & Fickel, J. (2021). Using terrestrial leeches to assess the genetic diversity of an elusive species: The Annamite striped rabbit Nesolagus timminsi. Environmental DNA, 3(4), 780-791.
Gray, T. N., Belecky, M., O’Kelly, H. J., Rao, M., Roberts, O., Tilker, A., ... & Yoganand, K. (2021). Understanding and solving the South-East Asian snaring crisis. The Ecological Citizen, 4, 129-141.
Tilker, A., Abrams, J. F., Nguyen, A. N., Hörig, L., Axtner, J., Louvrier, J., ... & Wilting, A. (2020). Identifying conservation priorities in a defaunated tropical biodiversity hotspot. Diversity and Distributions, 26(4), 426-440.
Tilker, A., Nguyen, A., Timmins, R. J., Gray, T. N., Steinmetz, R., Abramov, A. V., & Wilkinson, N. (2020). No longer Data Deficient: recategorizing the Annamite striped rabbit Nesolagus timminsi as Endangered. Oryx, 54(2), 151-151.
Tilker, A., Nguyen, A., Abrams, J. F., Bhagwat, T., Le, M., Van Nguyen, T., ... & Wilting, A. (2020). A little-known endemic caught in the South-east Asian extinction crisis: the Annamite striped rabbit Nesolagus timminsi. Oryx, 54(2), 178-187.
Nguyen, A. N., Tran, V. B., Hoang, D. M., Nguyen, T. A. M., Nguyen, D. T., Tran, V. T., ... & Tilker, A. (2019). Camera-trap evidence that the silver-backed chevrotain Tragulus versicolor remains in the wild in Vietnam. Nature Ecology & Evolution, 3(12), 1650-1654.
Tilker, A., Abrams, J. F., Mohamed, A., Nguyen, A., Wong, S. T., Sollmann, R., ... & Wilting, A. (2019). Habitat degradation and indiscriminate hunting differentially impact faunal communities in the Southeast Asian tropical biodiversity hotspot. Communications Biology, 2(1), 396.
Khwaja, H., Buchan, C., Wearn, O. R., Bantlin, D., Bernard, H., Bitariho, R., ...Tilker, A . . . & Challender, D. W. (2019). Pangolins in global camera trap data: Implications for ecological monitoring. Global Ecology and Conservation, 20, e00769.
Schnell, I. B., Bohmann, K., Schultze, S. E., Richter, S. R., Murray, D. C., Sinding, M. H. S., ... Tilker, A. . . . & Gilbert, M. T. P. (2018). Debugging diversity–a pan‐continental exploration of the potential of terrestrial blood‐feeding leeches as a vertebrate monitoring tool. Molecular Ecology Resources, 18(6), 1282-1298.
Abrams, J. F., Axtner, J., Bhagwat, T., Mohamed, A., Nguyen, A., Niedballa, J., Sollmann, R., Tilker, A & Wilting, A. (2018). Studying terrestrial mammals in tropical rainforests. A user guide for camera-trapping and environmental DNA. Leibniz-IZW, Berlin, Germany.
Tilker, A., Long, B., Gray, T. N., Robichaud, W., Van Ngoc, T., Vu Linh, N., ... & Burton, J. (2017). Saving the saola from extinction. Science, 357(6357), 1248-1248.
Gray, T. N., Thongsamouth, K., & Tilker, A. (2014). Recent camera-trap records of Owston’s Civet Chrotogale owstoni and other small carnivores from Xe Sap National Protected Area, southern Lao PDR. Small Carnivore Conservation, 51, 29-33.