Using Scenario-Based Technique for Cross-Cultural Wildlife Value Orientations Research in China

Context. Understanding how the individual movement patterns and dispersion of a population change following wildlife management interventions is crucial for effective population management. Aims. We quantified the impacts of two wildlife management strategies, a lethal intervention and a subsequent barrier intervention, on localised populations of the two most common macropod species in Tasmania, the Tasmanian pademelon (Thylogale billardierii) and the red-necked wallaby (Macropus rufogriseus rufogriseus). This manipulation allowed us to examine two competing hypotheses concerning the distribution of individuals in animal populations – the Ideal Free Distribution (IFD) hypothesis and the Rose Petal (RP) hypothesis. We predicted that the RP would be supported if individuals maintained their previous home ranges following intervention, whereas the IFD would be supported if individuals redistributed following the management interventions. Methods. The movement patterns of T. billardierii and M. r. rufogriseus were tracked using GPS technology before and after the two management interventions. Key results. Following lethal intervention, pademelons and wallabies (1) maintained their home-range area, (2) increased their utilisation of agricultural habitat and (3) shifted their mean centroid locations compared with the pre-intervention period. Following barrier intervention, pademelons and wallabies (1) maintained their home-range area, (2) decreased their utilisation of agricultural habitat and (3) shifted their mean centroid locations compared with the pre-intervention period. Conclusions. On the basis of the individual responses of macropods to the management strategies (1) lethal intervention appeared to induce small shifts in home-range distributions of those remaining individuals in the population with home ranges overlapping the areas of lethal intervention and (2) barrier intervention is likely to induce whole-scale population movements of the animals that survive the lethal intervention in their search of an alternative food source. Both species displayed spatial and temporal shifts in their home-range distributions in response to lethal and barrier interventions that appear to conform broadly to predictions of IFD, at least in the timeframe of the present experiment. Implications. Wildlife management strategies, which are increasingly constrained by ethical, socio-political and financial considerations, should be based on ecological and behavioural data regarding the likely responses of the target population.

Summary Wildlife management is becoming increasingly important in Australian forestry and this paper presents the conceptual framework for a relevant wildlife management strategy. Wildlife management in Australian forests might best be co-ordinated nationally. Because of the changing public perceptions of the role forestry must play in wildlife management in native forest, suggestions are made for the modification of present practice which will benefit both timber and wildlife management. The paper also reviews information requirements, the issues and the concerns important in the determination of such a strategy. Information bases are necessary for sound forest wildlife management. The concepts of minimum viable population and optimum habitat are discussed as well as wildlife management design in terms of zoning and the two integrated methods of core population and dispersed population techniques. It is argued that the standards of forest management have to improve to achieve the necessary balance between timber production and wildlife management. This will require an understanding of the aforementioned two concepts and the options available for integrating wildlife and timber management. Priority should be given to the determination of optimum habitat of species, forest site classification and the ranking of wildlife species according to management need.

The utility of zooarchaeological data for addressing wildlife management and conservation research has been increasingly recognized over the past two decades. As the field of 'applied zooarchaeology' continues to grow, newfound opportunities for discovery have arisen via collaborative interdisciplinary approaches. The burgeoning field of proteomics, in particular, has provided numerous opportunities for enhancing the degree to which meaningful information can be recovered from the archaeological record. Archaeological protein residues can inform conservation biologists about paleobiogeography and ecological/evolutionary history and thereby provide insight into wildlife management strategies. In addition to pointing out several cases where archaeological protein residues may be of benefit, I justify the use of protein residues in particular and discuss areas for improvement.

The utility of zooarchaeological data for addressing wildlife management and conservation research has been increasingly recognized over the past two decades. As the field of ‘applied zooarchaeology’ continues to grow, newfound opportunities for discovery have arisen via collaborative interdisciplinary approaches. The burgeoning field of proteomics, in particular, has provided numerous opportunities for enhancing the degree to which meaningful information can be recovered from the archaeological record. Archaeological protein residues can inform conservation biologists about paleobiogeography and ecological/evolutionary history and thereby provide insight into wildlife management strategies. In addition to pointing out several cases where archaeological protein residues may be of benefit, I justify the use of protein residues in particular and discuss areas for improvement.

Domestic cats are the most abundant vertebrate predator in many regions, but the acceptability of management strategies to reduce their effects on wildlife among conservation researchers and practitioners is unclear. We conducted a survey of UK-based conservation researchers and practitioners, using eight key statements on cat risks and management strategies, and assessed whether cat ownership influenced attitudes. While both researchers and practitioners agreed that cats were harmful to wildlife and management was needed, researchers were more concerned about cats entering nature reserves and less supportive of trap-neuter-release (TNR) than practitioners. Furthermore, cat ownership affected perceptions, with cat owners less likely to agree that cats threaten wildlife or support management strategies such as building buffer zones around nature reserves. Together, both occupation and cat ownership affected attitudes toward cats. This study could guide future campaigns in designing management strategies for nature reserves to reduce the effects of domestic cats on wildlife.

Scavenging plays a vital role in maintaining ecosystem health and contributing to ecological functions; however, research in this sub‐discipline of ecology is underutilized in developing and implementing wildlife conservation and management strategies. We provide an examination of the literature and recommend priorities for research where improved understanding of scavenging dynamics can facilitate the development and refinement of applied wildlife conservation and management strategies. Due to the application of scavenging research broadly within ecology, scavenging studies should be implemented for informing management decisions. In particular, a more direct link should be established between scavenging dynamics and applied management programs related to informing pharmaceutical delivery and population control through bait uptake for scavenging species, prevention of unintentional poisoning of nontarget scavenging species, the epidemiological role that scavenging species play in disease dynamics, estimating wildlife mortalities, nutrient transfer facilitated by scavenging activity, and conservation of imperiled facultative scavenging species. This commentary is intended to provide information on the paucity of data in scavenging research and present recommendations for further studies that can inform decisions in wildlife conservation and management. Additionally, we provide a framework for decision‐making when determining how to apply scavenging ecology research for management practices and policies. Due to the implications that scavenging species have on ecosystem health, and their overall global decline as a result of anthropic activities, it is imperative to advance studies in the field of scavenging ecology that can inform applied conservation and management programs.

XXXth IUGB Congress and Perdix XIII

This article focuses on mental health assessment of refugees in clinical, educational and administrative-legal settings in order to synthesise research and practice designed to enhance and promote further development of culturally appropriate clinical assessment services during the refugee resettlement process. It specifically surveys research published over the last 25 years into the development, reliability measurement and validity testing of assessment instruments, which have been used with children, adolescents and adults from refugee backgrounds, prior to or following their arrival in a resettlement country, to determine whether the instruments meet established crosscultural standards of conceptual, functional, linguistic, technical and normative equivalence. The findings suggest that, although attempts have been made to develop internally reliable, appropriately normed tests for use with refugees from diverse cultural and linguistic backgrounds, matters of conceptual and linguistic equivalence and test–retest reliability are often overlooked. Implications of these oversights for underreporting refugees' mental health needs are considered. Efforts should also be directed towards development of culturally comparable, valid and reliable measures of refugee children's mental health and of refugee children's and adults' psychoeducational, neuropsychological and applied memory capabilities.

ABSTRACTCommunity perceptions influence wildlife‐related management and policy efforts. However, there remains limited research into population‐level social and psychological aspects driving engagement with wildlife and how this shapes support for broader wildlife management approaches. Here we draw on Australian national data to develop a typology of community engagement with wildlife based on cognitive, affective, and behavioral factors, and how they shape support for wildlife management policies. We identified seven groups reflecting different patterns of engagement with wildlife, ranging from Champions to Disengaged. Importantly, respondents who were members of more engaged groups were also more likely to exhibit polarized views toward wildlife management strategies that involve culling or translocating wildlife. Our results suggest that wildlife managers and decision‐makers should not assume that support for wildlife always translates into support for wildlife management or conservation policies. We discuss approaches to communications and conflict management for diverse social groups.

Hunting as a wildlife management tool has come under increasing attack by antihunting organizations. This has resulted in increased concern by fish and wildlife agencies across North America, many of whom fear that the scientific management of wildlife is in danger due to the influence of an uninformed public. A province-wide survey based upon the Theory of Reasoned Action framework was conducted to examine residents' attitudes toward hunting in a variety of contexts. Results from over 1,300 respondents indicated support for hunting as wildlife management, for habitat preservation, and to maintain healthy animal populations. Attitudinal and normative influences were also examined based on level of intention to support hunting. Results of this research provide information regarding the underlying beliefs and referent groups likely to influence individual's support of hunting, which can then be used by government and others charged with the scientific management of wildlife to communicate successfully the role and significance of hunting in this regard.

This paper describes a decision support system for generating fire management plans which address predefined wildlife management objectives for a nature conservation reserve. Given limited knowledge of how low intensity fire would affect wildlife species, the expert reasoning of researchers was used to postulate fire response curves showing how high intensity fire affects vegetation structure and hence wildlife population density through time. These fire response curves and knowledge of the habitat preferences of wildlife species provided the best available information upon which to frame decision rules advocating prescribed burning at low intensity to manipulate wildlife habitat. Decision rules were also framed for protecting recreation sites, limiting fire spread, and reducing the risk of wildfire ignition. Once the decision rules were quantified, the LUPIS land use planning and information system was used to derive and map burning options reflecting different wildlife management strategies.

Habitat destruction and degradation are the most important threatening processes for the majority of species of conservation concern. As landscapes become more fragmented their spatial structure becomes increasingly important for the viability of wildlife populations. Therefore, understanding the dynamics of how populations interact with landscape structure is crucial for developing effective wildlife management and monitoring strategies. To achieve robust management, such an understanding should be incorporated into decision theory approaches for the design of management and monitoring strategies. Monitoring is a crucial component for assessing the outcome of management, because this can then be used to inform future management actions in an adaptive management framework. However, for many species, their spatial population dynamics are not well understood and objective management frameworks not well developed.In this thesis I use modelling approaches to develop the components of an adaptive management framework for species of conservation concern that occur in fragmented landscapes. I use the koala (Phascolarctos cinereus) as a study organism and specifically address three key components that are important for adaptive management. These components are: (1) the development of novel approaches for modelling and understanding spatial population processes, (2) the application of modelling approaches to develop general principles and methods for managing wildlife populations in fragmented landscapes and (3) the application of modelling approaches to identify the best spatio-temporal sampling strategies for monitoring population trends in fragmented landscapes. This research advances our understanding of the dynamics of wildlife populations in fragmented landscapes, but importantly also develops tools and general principles for the adaptive management of these populations.To improve our understanding of the dynamics of populations in fragmented landscapes I develop several novel modelling approaches. Firstly, I develop an approach for disassociating the effect of natural habitat and anthropogenic influences on population distributions using static occupancy models. This approach allows inferences to be made about how important the distribution of habitat is compared to other human-related factors. Secondly, I develop modelling approaches for understanding habitat selection and dispersal processes. In particular, I address common problems for modelling complex habitat selection processes and parameterising dispersal simulation models. The habitat selection models are novel because they account for habitat preferences that depend upon the spatial location of habitat. The novel emphasis for the dispersal models, is showing that pattern-oriented approaches are useful for parameterising dispersal simulation models, even when we have little data. These models make an important contribution to our understanding of and methods for understanding spatial population processes.These and other modelling approaches are then applied to some key management questions, in order to develop general principles and methods for wildlife management decision-making. These studies relate to identifying the best spatial allocation of different management strategies, the planning of road networks to minimise impacts on wildlife and the impact of different mortality rates on the ranking of habitat protection strategies. First, I show that the relative spatial distribution of habitat and anthropogenic influences has important implications for the spatial allocation of management strategies. Second, I show that increasing traffic volume on existing roads is generally preferential to building new roads in terms of minimising the impact on wildlife mortality. Third, I use a multi-criteria decision analysis to show that the spatial arrangement of protected habitat is much less important for populations subject to high mortality rates than those subject to low mortality rates.Finally, spatially-explicit modelling approaches are applied to questions related to how sampling effort should best be allocated spatially and spatio-temporally to monitor population trends. These studies reveal that the best sampling strategy depends predictably upon the monitoring objectives and the dynamics of the species. Using the principles developed, improved monitoring strategies and ultimately improved management strategies will be possible. This thesis makes an important contribution to the development of adaptive management strategies for wildlife populations in fragmented landscapes. To implement an adaptive management approach, the modelling, management and monitoring components must be explicitly linked. By developing each of these components, this thesis provides a strong basis from which an adaptive management framework can be constructed. How this may be achieved and key areas for future research are discussed.

Wildlife law and policy

Disgust is an adaptive system hypothesized to have evolved to reduce the risk of becoming sick. It is associated with behavioural, cognitive and physiological responses tuned to allow animals to avoid and/or get rid of parasites, pathogens and toxins. Little is known about the mechanisms and outcomes of disease avoidance in wild animals. Furthermore, given the escalation of negative human-wildlife interactions, the translation of such knowledge into the design of evolutionarily relevant conservation and wildlife management strategies is becoming urgent. Contemporary methods in animal ecology and related fields, using direct (sensory cues) or indirect (remote sensing technologies and machine learning) means, provide a flexible toolbox for testing and applying disgust at individual and collective levels. In this review/perspective paper, we provide an empirical framework for testing the adaptive function of disgust and its associated disease avoidance behaviours across species, from the least to the most social, in different habitats. We predict various trade-offs to be at play depending on the social system and ecology of the species. We propose five contexts in which disgust-related avoidance behaviours could be applied, including endangered species rehabilitation, invasive species, crop-raiding, urban pests and animal tourism. We highlight some of the perspectives and current challenges of testing disgust in the wild. In particular, we recommend future studies to consider together disease, predation and competition risks. We discuss the ethics associated with disgust experiments in the above contexts. Finally, we promote the creation of a database gathering disease avoidance evidence in animals and its applications.

Wildlife monitoring is critical for ecological study, conservation, and wildlife management, but traditional approaches have drawbacks. The combination of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) with machine learning (ML) offers a viable approach to overcoming the limits of traditional wildlife monitoring methods and improving wildlife management and conservation tactics. The combination of UAVs and ML provides efficient and effective solutions for wildlife monitoring. UAVs with high-resolution cameras record airborne footage, while machine learning algorithms automate animal detection, tracking, and behavior analysis. The chapter discusses challenges, limitations, and future directions in using UAVs and ML for wildlife monitoring, addressing regulatory, technical, and ethical considerations, and emphasizing the need for ongoing research and technological advancements. Overall, the integration of UAVs and ML provides a promising solution to overcome the limitations of traditional wildlife monitoring methods and enhance wildlife management and conservation strategies.