Kelsey has been working with Eurasian beavers since 2012 where she first started a beaver conservation-based placement program with the Royal Zoological Society of Scotland as part of a MSci degree from the University of Glasgow. Since then she has worked closely on government-funded beaver population studies in Scotland.
Kelsey's current PhD research at the University of Stirling focuses on investigating the interactions between Eurasian beaver and deer and how these may affect riparian vegetation. The project is in partnership with NatureScot and the James Hutton Institute and due to be completed in December 2022.
The project has established various field-based experiments across Tayside and Argyll to investigate how beaver activity can affect the regeneration, structure and composition of riparian woodlands. Other experiments are incorporating laboratory-based work to investigate how beaver and deer grazing can alter plant chemistry and nutrition.
Kelsey works as a self-employed ecologist in rural Perthshire specialising in bird, mammal and habitat surveys for woodland creation schemes in her spare time. See research gate for full up-to-date publications: https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Kelsey-Wilson-7