LangbeinWildlife is a specialist ecological consultancy working predominantly with deer, covering all aspects of their behaviour, population dynamics and management of their impacts.
Over the past decade a large portion of our work has been concerned with assessing the scale and distribution of deer vehicle collisions across Britain (with the Deer Initiative, Highways Agency and SNH ); as well as parallel studies and design of mitigation measures aimed at reducing wildlife accidents, undertaken for clients ranging from go
vernment agencies and local authorities, to NGOs and private developers.
Other areas of expertise include provision of surveys and advice for preparation of deer management plans - be it for major community forests, park herds or private landholdings; assessment of mammal impact to forestry and agriculture; and extensive experience of application of remote video surveillance techniques, trail-cameras, GIS , and ground based as well as GPS radio-tracking for research.
Alongside ecological consultancy services, wildlife photography and filming forms a growing area of interest, with our photographs and footage increasingly used by the media.
LangbeinWildlife was founded in 1997
by Jochen Langbein, Phd (Zool) MSc (Ecol) MCIEEM.
The bulk of our work continues to be undertaken or closely supervised directly by Dr Langbein, drawing on the assistance of a range of other experienced associates for larger projects or when additional species specialists are required.
Jochen Langbein
My passion for wildlife began in my pre-teens in rural southern Germany , where red squirrels, many types of lizard, numerous other wild mammals and rich butterfly fauna fascinated me on almost daily countryside rambles. A family move to England (initially intended to last 2 years but ending up permanent!) led me to complete most of my secondary and further education in the UK . Having graduated from the University of London in 1981, my professional interest in deer began with an initial one-year job with the Forestry Commission’s Wildlife Branch to analyse the diet of Scottish wild red deer . After a brief break from deer to study for an MSc in Ecology and research into social behaviour of Magpies, next I spent two years as the first manager of the North Staffordshire Deer Survey based at Keele University (now morphed into the ‘Deer Study & Resource Centre’ still going today). My eagerness to devote more time to in-depth deer research led me to Southampton University, with a proposal for PhD study to assess deer-vehicle collisions countrywide. As funding for that topic could not be raised at that time, I instead initially took up offer of doctoral studentship to investigate “The effects of population density on the reproductive success and mating systems of fallow deer”. This led on to a series of further pre- and post-doctoral university research posts covering topics including investigations into animal condition and mortality factors in deer parks, methodologies for surveying brown hares, and a series of studies into the status, ranging behaviour and impacts of red deer and other herbivores on vegetation in semi-natural woodlands and moorlands of the West Country.
After 15 years of University centred research I took the decision in 1997 to turn freelance as an ecological consultant. My initial expectation that I would need to diversify to work more so on protected mammal species proved unfounded, and deer have continued to form the mainstay of my consultancy work. One major contract early on concerned research into impacts of wild deer on cereal crops a
nd pastures (for IGER). Alongside application of GPS radio tracking and other techniques this study made extensive use of remote CCTV surveillance of wild deer activity, at a time before the now increasingly affordable and commonplace use of Trail-Cam technology. Use of video surveillance has continued to form one of my favoured field techniques also in more recent studies on mammal behaviour in relation to roads and effectiveness of mitigation measures; not merely for the 24/7 insights into animal behaviour video can provide as a research tool, but also use of the often fascinating footage captured to help raise public awareness of wildlife issues. Eventually, following a brief pilot study for Highways Agency in 1996 (with SGS) to assess the likely national scale of deer-vehicle collisions in Britain, a project proposal I initiated for a fuller two year countrywide assessments of the scale and distribution of deer vehicle collisions was provided funding from 2003 (which I oversee for The Deer Initiative), and ten years on still occupies a significant part of my time; perhaps unsurprising, as the conflict between rising traffic levels as well as increasing numbers and spread of deer populations shows few signs of subsiding.
For a selection of scientific papers, books, magazine articles, and other major reports arising from my work please see the ‘publications’ page.
