Research Priorities from Animal Behaviour for Maximising Conservation Progress.
Poor communication between academic researchers and wildlife managers limits conservation progress and innovation. As a result, input from overlapping fields, such as animal behaviour, is underused in conservation management despite its demonstrated utility as a conservation tool and countless papers advocating its use. Communication and collaboration across these two disciplines are unlikely to improve without clearly identified management needs and demonstrable impacts of behavioural-based conservation management. To facilitate this process, a team of wildlife managers and animal behaviour researchers conducted a research prioritisation exercise, identifying 50 key questions that have great potential to resolve critical conservation and management problems. The resulting agenda highlights the diversity and extent of advances that both fields could achieve through collaboration.
Department of Biological Sciences, Dartmouth College, Hanover, NH, USA. Electronic address: Alison.L.Greggor@dartmouth.edu.
Alison L
AL
Greggor
Mitrani Department of Desert Ecology, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Midreshet Ben-Gurion, Israel.
Oded
O
Berger-Tal
Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of California, Los Angeles, CA, USA.
Daniel T
DT
Blumstein
Department of Biology, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, CO, USA.
Lisa
L
Angeloni
Ecologie Systématique Evolution, Université Paris-Sud, CNRS, AgroParisTech, Université Paris-Saclay, Orsay, France.
Carmen
C
Bessa-Gomes
U.S. Department of Agriculture, Wildlife Services, National Wildlife Research Center, Fort Collins, CO, USA.
Bradley F
BF
Blackwell
Biological Sciences, University of Alberta, Edmonton, AB, Canada.
Colleen Cassady
CC
St Clair
Department of Fish, Wildlife, & Conservation Biology, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, CO, USA.
Kevin
K
Crooks
Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute, Front Royal, VA, USA; Trunks & Leaves Inc, Newtonville, MA, USA.
Shermin
S
de Silva
Purdue University, Department of Biological Sciences, West Lafayette, IN, USA.
Esteban
E
Fernández-Juricic
Department of Fish, Wildlife, & Conservation Biology, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, CO, USA; Save the Elephants, Nairobi, Kenya.
Shifra Z
SZ
Goldenberg
Southwest Fisheries Science Center, National Marine Fisheries Service, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, CA, USA.
Sarah L
SL
Mesnick
Institute for Conservation Research, San Diego Zoo Global, Escondido, CA, USA.
Megan
M
Owen
School of Life and Environmental Sciences, University of Sydney, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia.
Catherine J
CJ
Price
Mitrani Department of Desert Ecology, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Midreshet Ben-Gurion, Israel.
David
D
Saltz
Department of Biology, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, CO, USA; U.S. Department of Agriculture, Wildlife Services, National Wildlife Research Center, Fort Collins, CO, USA.
Christopher J
CJ
Schell
Department of Animal Biology and Department of Entomology, University of Illinois, Champaign, IL, USA.
Andrew V
AV
Suarez
Institute for Conservation Research, San Diego Zoo Global, Escondido, CA, USA.
Ronald R
RR
Swaisgood
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Conservation Partnerships Program, Carlsbad, CA, USA.
Clark S
CS
Winchell
Conservation Science Group, Department of Zoology, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK.
William J
WJ
Sutherland
D000818:Animals; D000835:Animals, Wild; D001522:Behavior, Animal; D003247:Conservation of Natural Resources; D006801:Humans; D012106:Research; D012108:Research Personnel
Delphi method; animal behaviour; conservation biology; horizon scan; policy priorities; wildlife management