Large carnivores are the most challenging species with which to coexist. For millions of years, they competed with our ancestors for food and space. Humans were generally subordinate in this struggle. But, the past few hundred years have seen the tables turned. Now humans cause most carnivore mortality worldwide.
Conservationists face special challenges to protect wildlife that damage property, attack humans, or take fish and game. Many carnivores have suffered major range contractions or population reductions because of competition with humans for space and resources. Humans retaliate after damage is done or preemptively when they feel threatened. Such retaliation readily becomes disproportionate to losses and unsustainable. As an added challenge for conservationists, many large-bodied wildlife range widely and play ecological roles disproportionate to their numbers. For example carnivores exert direct and indirect effects on prey and smaller predators, hence their eradication affects other biodiversity and strongly alters the structure and organization of ecosystems. Furthermore, many human cultures attach strong symbolic values to large mammals, both positive and negative, which make policy and management slow and contentious. Involvement of interest groups and inclusion of aesthetic, economic, and political values into conservation planning then becomes inevitable in the conservation of these controversial animals.
Over the long history of human-wildlife
conflicts,
many governments have sanctioned, subsidized, or organized large-scale
eradication campaigns. With rising concern about species extinction,
such campaigns are no longer politically acceptable in most parts of
the world. This has fueled interest in more measured, selective lethal
control of problem wildlife, as well as non-lethal interventions, and
indirect means to raise human tolerance for wildlife.
Large carnivores can be conserved within human-dominated areas, while also protecting people's livelihoods and safety. The solutions are never simple; indeed they can be maddeningly complex. But when we combine local knowledge with technical support and state-of-the-art research, we can work with affected communities to balance the needs of people and wildlife.
I started the Carnivore Coexistence Lab in April
2007 to
consolidate my research with that of my graduate students. The
following web pages outline our current research efforts and some
recent findings.