African trophy hunting is controversial. Central to the debate on this practice is whether it may be justified by any broader provisions to African society. These typically include meat supply to ...poor communities, problem animal control, and the funding of conservation and community development. The societal role of African hunting is as contested as the practice itself, with proponents advocating for the benefits of hunting, while critics point to these being inadequate. Little is known about the role of location and demography in the debate on hunting benefits. Here we circulated an anonymous online survey through our international networks. We asked respondents to indicate which (if any) benefits they thought may justify the practice and whether they supported African trophy hunting, or not. We also collected data on respondent geographic location, age, gender, and employment within conservation. The 5755 responses were analysed using multiple correspondence analysis and provided strong evidence for an association between the level of support/rejection of trophy hunting and potential benefits that were perceived to justify the practice. Funding of wildlife conservation through hunting was the most frequently selected benefit, even among many respondents with a neutral or slightly negative view toward trophy hunting as a practice. Respondents strongly opposed to trophy hunting were more likely to reject all societal benefits of hunting. There was some divergence in views between Africa-based respondents, and those outside of Africa. We suggest that any policy development on African trophy hunting be required to incorporate the views of all African stakeholders.
1. Primary objectives of national parks usually include both, the protection of natural processes and species conservation. When these objectives conflict, as occurs because of the cascading effects ...of large mammals (i.e., ungulates and large carnivores) on lower trophic levels, park managers have to decide upon the appropriate management while considering various local circumstances.
2. To analyse if ungulate management strategies are in accordance with the objectives defined for protected areas, we assessed the current status of ungulate management across European national parks using the naturalness concept and identified the variables that influence the management.
3. We collected data on ungulate management from 209 European national parks in 29 countries by means of a large-scale questionnaire survey. Ungulate management in the parks was compared by creating two naturalness scores. The first score reflects ungulate and large carnivore species compositions, and the second evaluates human intervention on ungulate populations. We then tested whether the two naturalness score categories are influenced by the management objectives, park size, years since establishment, percentage of government-owned land, and human impact on the environment (human influence index) using two generalized additive mixed models.
4. In 67.9% of the national parks, wildlife is regulated by culling (40.2%) or hunting (10.5%) or both (17.2%). Artificial feeding occurred in 81.3% of the national parks and only 28.5% of the national parks had a non-intervention zone covering at least 75% of the area. Furthermore, ungulate management differed greatly among the different countries, likely because of differences in hunting traditions and cultural and political backgrounds. Ungulate management was also influenced by park size, human impact on the landscape, and national park objectives, but after removing these variables from the full model the reduced models only showed a small change in the deviance explained. In areas with higher anthropogenic pressure, wildlife diversity tended to be lower and a higher number of domesticated species tended to be present. Human intervention (culling and artificial feeding) was lower in smaller national parks and when park objectives followed those set by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN).
5. Our study shows that many European national parks do not fulfil the aims of protected area management as set by IUCN guidelines. In contrast to the USA and Canada, Europe currently has no common ungulate management policy within national parks. This lack of a common policy together with differences in species composition, hunting traditions, and cultural or political context has led to differences in ungulate management among European countries. To fulfil the aims and objectives of national parks and to develop ungulate management strategies further, we highlight the importance of creating a more integrated European ungulate management policy to meet the aims of national parks.
•We used the naturalness score to assess ungulate management in protected areas.•Ungulate management in national parks varied greatly among European countries.•Ungulate management reflects differences in legislation, policy and traditions.•An integrated European ungulate management framework for national parks is needed.
People have written about habituation, a process that leads to decreased responsiveness to a stimulus, as well as its counterpart, sensitization, or an increased responsiveness to a stimulus, for ...over 2000 years. And, while intensive research in the last century has led to well-supported generalizations about mechanisms of habituation, we have not developed a ‘natural history’ of habituation and tolerance that would help us predict, based on life history and natural history variation, how species will respond to humans and anthropogenic stimuli. The need for predictive models has never been greater. In this essay I will review generalizations about these learning processes and point out how a clear understanding of mechanism can be used to inform wildlife management and generate testable management interventions. I will also highlight unanswered questions about habituation and sensitization, and establish the groundwork for developing a natural history of habituation and tolerance.
•The idea that animals may habituate to benign stimuli is an old idea.•Habituation to human stimuli is important for wildlife conservation/management.•I review generalizations about mechanisms of habituation as a management tool.•A natural history of habituation and tolerance are needed to inform management.•I propose reasons for differences in habituation between species and populations.
Co-occurrence of humans and wildlife leads to interactions with potential positive or negative outcomes for the human actors and for the wild animals. It may also lead to positive or negative ...interactions between various human actors, who perceive the wildlife or wildlife conservation and management similarly or in different ways. The description of negative interactions as Human Wildlife Conflicts (HWC) is criticised as too imprecise, and a distinction to differentiate between wildlife “impacts”, from social “conflicts” has previously been suggested. In this review paper, most reviewed studies within HWC are identified as dealing with “impacts” (n = 156), while a smaller number of papers are focusing on the social conflicts (n = 45). Illustrated by this sample of HWC literature, the concept of HWC is disentangled based on the Human-Environment Interaction Model and Appraisal Theory of Emotion. The framework can provide a structure for understanding the HWC-situation where various actors relate to the wild animals or local activities as part of the physical environment, and other actors as part of the social environment, within the multiuse landscape in which they perform their activities. The discussion provides insight to the internal psychological process as the situation is appraised by the individual actor for the relevance and implications it has to individual goals. A framework for appraising the situation of others can facilitate understanding and empathy between actors, important for future co-existence and sustainable conservation of wildlife in multiuse landscapes.
•In this review of HWC, most studies focus on “impacts” caused by wildlife on human interests or vice versa (n = 159),•A smaller number of reviewed papers are focusing on the potential “social conflicts” over wildlife (n = 45).•HWC is disentangled based on a psychological theoretical framework on human – environment interactions.•External (to the individual) HWC-situation and internal (within the individual) psychological processing of the situation.•Framework to support appraisal of the situation of others, to facilitate understanding and empathy between actors.
Increases in burned area across the western United States (US) since the mid‐1980s have been widely documented and linked partially to climate factors, yet evaluations of trends in fire severity are ...lacking. Here we evaluate fire severity trends and their interannual relationships to climate for western US forests from 1985 to 2017. Significant increases in annual area burned at high severity (AABhs) were observed across most ecoregions, with an overall eightfold increase in AABhs across western US forests. The relationships we identified between the annual fire severity metrics and climate, as well as the observed and projected trend toward warmer and drier fire seasons, suggest that climate change will contribute to increased fire severity in future decades where fuels remain abundant. The growing prevalence of high‐severity fire in western US forests has important implications to forest ecosystems, including an increased probability of fire‐catalyzed conversions from forest to alternative vegetation types.
Plain Language Summary
The physical and ecological effects of wildfire (hereafter fire severity) have important consequences in terms of soil erosion, carbon storage, forest succession, wildlife habitat, and human safety and infrastructure. This study evaluated changes in fire severity in western US forests from 1985 to 2017 and tested whether fire severity varied with fire‐season climate. Results show that area burned at high severity increased across most of the study area, with an overall eightfold increase in western US forests from 1985 to 2017. Furthermore, warmer and drier fire seasons corresponded with higher severity fire, indicating that continued climate change may result in increased fire severity in future decades. One potential consequence of greater area burned at high severity is an increased probability that forests will convert to alternative vegetation types. Our findings provide some guidance to managers as society struggles to better coexist with fire. For example, it may be possible to increase the prevalence of low‐ and moderate‐severity fire, sometimes referred to as “good fire”, through thoughtful planning about where and when to implement a less aggressive fire suppression response. Similar to prescribed fires that promote forest resilience, unplanned fires that burn during less‐than‐extreme fire seasons have the potential to serve as effective “fuel treatments”.
Key Points
Area burned at high severity increased from 1985 to 2017 across most western US forests coincident with warmer and drier fire seasons
Warmer and drier fire seasons correspond to elevated fire severity and proportion burned at high severity across many western US forests
Continued climate change could result in more high‐severity fire where fuels remain abundant
Biodiversity is under threat worldwide. Over the past decade, the field of population genomics has developed across nonmodel organisms, and the results of this research have begun to be applied in ...conservation and management of wildlife species. Genomics tools can provide precise estimates of basic features of wildlife populations, such as effective population size, inbreeding, demographic history and population structure, that are critical for conservation efforts. Moreover, population genomics studies can identify particular genetic loci and variants responsible for inbreeding depression or adaptation to changing environments, allowing for conservation efforts to estimate the capacity of populations to evolve and adapt in response to environmental change and to manage for adaptive variation. While connections from basic research to applied wildlife conservation have been slow to develop, these connections are increasingly strengthening. Here we review the primary areas in which population genomics approaches can be applied to wildlife conservation and management, highlight examples of how they have been used, and provide recommendations for building on the progress that has been made in this field.
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