Dr Geoff Hilton

Head of Conservation Evidence

Visiting Professor of Conservation Biology at Manchester Metropolitan University

About me

My conservation career began as a WWT volunteer back in 1992. After brief stints working in wetlands in New Zealand and Venezuela, I completed a PhD at Glasgow University, investigating the ecophysiology of seabird digestion, and then did a postdoc on the thermodynamics of incubation. I worked for 10 years in the International Research Team at the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds, where I managed a range of projects designed to diagnose the pressures on threatened species, and developed a major focus on islands, invasive species and island restoration; during 2005-7 I was seconded to Lisbon and the Portuguese Society for the Protection of Birds (SPEA).

I (re-)joined WWT in 2009, establishing a Species Research Unit, which has evolved into the Conservation Evidence Department (currently 25 staff and 10 PhD students).

My role

I oversee the work of WWT’s Conservation Evidence department and am part of the Senior Leadership Team of the organisation. The department provides conservation evidence to support the wetland conservation work of WWT, and my role is to set the strategic direction for research at WWT and support the team in delivering it. My own background is in ornithology and the science of species recovery, but we are a diverse team, with expertise in disciplines from social science to ecology, and taxa from birds to insects.

I am a member of the (Ramsar) Convention on Wetlands Scientific & Technical Review Panel, and a co-author of the Convention’s 2025 Global Wetland Outlook. I am a member of the England Species Reintroduction Task Force, the Technical Assistance Group of the global Freshwater Challenge, and the Strategic Advisory Group of the Global Wetland Center at the University of Copenhagen.

Experience and interests

• Species recovery science
• Population modelling
• Invasive species biology and island restoration
• Stable isotope ecology

Publications

Donaldson, L., Nicol-Harper, A., Lee, R., Jarrett, N., & Hilton, G.M. (2025). When and why to give shorebirds a headstart. Conservation Biology.

Ozsanlav-Harris, L., Burgess, M. D., Hilton, G. M., & Bearhop, S. (2023). Changes in the spatial patterns of avian migrations: Evidence, mechanisms and causes. Diversity and Distributions, 29, 1527–1545. https://doi.org/10.1111/ddi.13785

McIntosh, A. L. S., Bearhop, S., Hilton, G. M., Shaw, J. M., & Johnson, F. A. (2023). Modelling harvest of Greenland barnacle geese and its implications in mitigating human–wildlife conflict. Journal of Applied Ecology, 60, 764–777. https://doi.org/10.1111/1365-2664.14369

Wood, K. A., Newth, J. L., & Hilton, G. M. (2021). For NGOs, article-processing charges sap conservation funds. Nature 599, 32. https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-021-02979-5

Lewis-Phillips, J., Brooks, S., Sayer, C. D., Patmore, I. R., Hilton, G. M., Harrison, A. L., Robson, H.J. &Axmacher, J. (2019). Ponds as insect chimneys: restoring overgrown farmland ponds benefits birds through elevated productivity of emerging aquatic insects. Biological Conservation.

Bamford, A. J., Razafindrajao, F., Young, R. P., & Hilton, G. M. (2017). Profound and pervasive degradation of Madagascar’s freshwater wetlands and links with biodiversity. PLoS ONE, 12(8), 1–15. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0182673

Soriano-Redondo, A., Bearhop, S., Cleasby, I. R. I. R., Lock, L., Votier, S. C. C., & Hilton, G. M. (2016). Ecological responses to extreme flooding events: a case study with a reintroduced bird. Scientific Reports, 6, 28595. doi: 10.1038/srep28595

Weegman, M. D., Bearhop, S., Fox, A. D., Hilton, G. M., Walsh, A. J., McDonald, J. L., & Hodgson, D. J. (2016). Integrated population modelling reveals a perceived source to be a cryptic sink. Journal of Animal Ecology, 85(2), 467–475. doi: 10.1111/1365-2656.12481