Tanja Straka

Freising/Berlin

Tanja is a professor of natural area and wildlife management at the Weihenstephan-Triesdorf University of Applied Sciences (HSWT) and an associate researcher at the Freie Universität Berlin, with a habilitation (venia legendi in Urban Ecology) from the University of Münster. Tanja’s academic background includes postdoctoral research at the Technische Universität Berlin and the Leibniz Institute for Zoo and Wildlife Research (IZW), a Ph.D. in Urban Ecology from the University of Melbourne, and a German Diplom in Biology from Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich. Since her PhD, she has been passionate about combining ecological research with social science theories to find solutions for ‘shared urban landscapes’ in which nature, wildlife, and people can coexist and thrive. When it comes to wildlife, Tanja’s major passion is bats. However, in her current position, she is also starting to work with other urban wildlife. When it comes to human–nature-wildlife interactions, she is particularly interested in landscape preferences, understanding drivers of acceptance and human behaviour, and communication for conservation (e.g. photo stimuli and storytelling). Her latest research interests include exploring and understanding human–nature–wildlife relationships through social-ecological networks and in real-world settings such as living labs. She also enjoys discussions around ethics in conservation, particularly around the recognition that the way we approach science and conservation is inevitably shaped by our own values.