Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons^™

Toward A Synthesis Of Conservation And Animal Welfare Science, David Fraser

David Fraser, PhD

Conservation biology and animal welfare science are multidisciplinary fields of research that address social concerns about animals. Conservation biology focuses on wild animals, works at the level of populations, ecological systems and genetic types, and deals with threats to biodiversity and ecological integrity. Animal welfare science typically focuses on captive (often domestic) animals, works at the level of individuals and groups, and deals with threats to the animals’ health and quality of life. However, there are many areas of existing or potential overlap: (i) many real-life problems, such as environmental contamination, urban development and transportation, create problems for animals that …

Rating Harms To Wildlife: A Survey Showing Convergence Between Conservation And Animal Welfare Views, S. Dubois, D. Fraser

David Fraser, PhD

Human activities may cause conservation concerns when animal populations or ecosystems are harmed and animal welfare concerns when individuals are harmed. In general, people are concerned with one or the other, as the concepts may be regarded as separate or even at odds. An online purposive survey of 339 British Columbians explored differences between groups that varied by gender, residency, wildlife engagement level and value orientation (conservation-oriented or animal welfare-oriented), to see how they rated the level of harm to wildlife caused by different human activities. Women, urban residents, those with low wildlife engagement, and welfare-orientated participants generally scored activities …

The Evolution Of A Volunteer Lake Protection Program, Maggie Shannon, Alexa A.E. Junker, Philip J. Nyhus, Cathy R. Bevier, Russell Cole

Philip J. Nyhus

No abstract provided.

Compassion As A Practical And Evolved Ethic For Conservation, David Ramp, Marc Bekoff

Marc Bekoff, PhD

The ethical position underpinning decisionmaking is an important concern for conservation biologists when setting priorities for interventions. The recent debate on how best to protect nature has centered on contrasting intrinsic and aesthetic values against utilitarian and economic values, driven by an inevitable global rise in conservation conflicts. These discussions have primarily been targeted at species and ecosystems for success, without explicitly expressing concern for the intrinsic value and welfare of individual animals. In part, this is because animal welfare has historically been thought of as an impediment to conservation. However, practical implementations of conservation that provide good welfare outcomes …

Human–Wildlife Conflict And Coexistence, Philip J. Nyhus

Philip J. Nyhus

Day 1: Wednesday, 17 August 2005: Biodiversity And Critical Habitat, Charles Bedford, Federico Cheever, Tim Sullivan

Tim Sullivan

6 pages (includes color illustration). Contains references.

Do Zoos And Aquariums Promote Attitude Change In Visitors? A Critical Evaluation Of The American Zoo And Aquarium Study, Lori Marino, Scott O. Lilienfeld, Randy Malamud, Nathan Nobis, Ron Broglio

Lori Marino, PhD

Modern-day zoos and aquariums market themselves as places of education and conservation. A recent study conducted by the American Zoo and Aquarium Association (AZA) (Falk et al., 2007) is being widely heralded as the first direct evidence that visits to zoos and aquariums produce long-term positive effects on people’s attitudes toward other animals. In this paper, we address whether this conclusion is warranted by analyzing the study’s methodological soundness. We conclude that Falk et al. (2007) contains at least six major threats to methodological validity that undermine the authors’ conclusions. There remains no compelling evidence for the claim that zoos …

Do Zoos And Aquariums Promote Attitude Change In Visitors? A Critical Evaluation Of The American Zoo And Aquarium Study, Lori Marino, Scott O. Lilienfeld, Randy Malamud, Nathan Nobis, Ron Broglio

Nathan M. Nobis, PhD

Modern-day zoos and aquariums market themselves as places of education and conservation. A recent study conducted by the American Zoo and Aquarium Association (AZA) (Falk et al., 2007) is being widely heralded as the first direct evidence that visits to zoos and aquariums produce long-term positive effects on people’s attitudes toward other animals. In this paper, we address whether this conclusion is warranted by analyzing the study’s methodological soundness. We conclude that Falk et al. (2007) contains at least six major threats to methodological validity that undermine the authors’ conclusions. There remains no compelling evidence for the claim that zoos …

An Assessment Of South China Tiger Reintroduction Potential In Hupingshan And Houhe National Nature Reserves, China, Yiyuan Qin, Philip J. Nyhus, Courtney L. Larson, Charles J.W. Carroll, Jeff Muntifering, Thomas D. Dahmer, Lu Jun, Ronald L. Tilson

Philip J. Nyhus

Human-caused biodiversity loss is a global problem, large carnivores are particularly threatened, and the tiger (Panthera tigris) is among the world’s most endangered large carnivores. The South China tiger (Panthera tigris amoyensis) is the most critically endangered tiger subspecies and is considered functionally extinct in the wild. The government of China has expressed its intent to reintroduce a small population of South China tigers into a portion of their historic range as part of a larger goal to recover wild tiger populations in China. This would be the world’s first major tiger reintroduction program. A free-ranging population of 15–20 tigers …

Interactions Between Short-Beaked Common Dolphin (Delphinus Delphis) And The Winter Pelagic Pair-Trawl Fishery Ff Southwest England (Uk), Marijke N. De Boer, James T. Saulino, Mardik F. Leopold, Peter J.H. Reijnders, Mark P. Simmonds

Mark P. Simmonds, OBE

During offshore and onshore studies (2004 to 2009), the interactions between pair-trawls and short-beaked common dolphins (Delphinus delphis) were studied to better understand the impact of bycatch. A ‘hotspot’ area where pair-trawls overlapped with high dolphin abundance was identified. We made comparisons between boat-based data collected in absence and presence of pair-trawlers. The relative abundance and group-size of dolphins was significantly higher in the presence of pair-trawlers. Dolphins were observed associating with towing and hauling procedures. Significantly, more carcasses occurred in areas with hauling-activity than those without. Body-temperatures obtained from carcasses found near operating pair-trawlers indicated that bycatch mostly occurred …

Annotated Bibliography: Environmental Education (1998-2013), Erich Yahner

Erich Yahner

No abstract provided.

Modeling Habitat Associations For The Common Loon (Gavia Immer) At Multiple Scales In Northeastern North America, Anne Kuhn, Jane Copeland, John Cooley, Harry Vogel, Kate Taylor, Diane Nacci, Peter V. August

Peter August

Common Loon (Gavia immer) is considered an emblematic and ecologically important example of aquatic-dependent wildlife in North America. The northern breeding range of Common Loon has contracted over the last century as a result of habitat degradation from human disturbance and lakeshore development. We focused on the state of New Hampshire, USA, where a long-term monitoring program conducted by the Loon Preservation Committee has been collecting biological data on Common Loon since 1976. The Common Loon population in New Hampshire is distributed throughout the state across a wide range of lake-specific habitats, water quality conditions, and levels of human disturbance. …

Conservation Genetics Of The Endangered Eastern Freshwater Cod, Maccullochella Ikei, Catherine Jane Nock

Dr Catherine J Nock

Fragmentation over evolutionary time scales following vicariant and dispersal events has long been recognised as a dominant process in biological diversification and speciation; while anthropogenic habitat fragmentation in recent times is considered a threat to the long-term persistence of species and ecosystems. The eastern freshwater cod Maccullochella ikei is Australia’s largest endangered freshwater fish species. Abundant in the Clarence and Richmond River systems at the time of European settlement, populations crashed in the early 1900s causing local extinctions and range reduction. Recovery efforts, including a prohibition on fishing for M. ikei and hatchery breeding programs, were initiated in an attempt …

Cleaning Of Rivers Through The Application Of Advanced Technologies, Praveen Jha Dr

Praveen Jha Dr

Despite immense drain on our scarce resources, rivers remain polluted. Waste disposal into rivers on top of meager to absent infrastructural facilities, including treatment facilities, are the most important drivers of pollution. Unscientific development paradigm devoid of adequate environmental safeguards and failure of forestry sector to cope up with the challenge has led to the deteriorated condition of green cover and water. Several state-of-art geo-spatial programs developed by the author would be applied for generating optimum state-of-art plan. Three state-of-art geo-spatial programs - Multi-Algorithm Automation Program (MAAP), Data Automatic Modification Program (DAMP) and Multi-Stage Simulation Program (MUSSIP) - developed primarily …

Fundamentals For Using Geographic Information Science To Measure The Effectiveness Of Land Conservation Projects, Robert G. Pontius Jr., Shaily Menon, Joseph Duncan, Shalini Gupta

Shaily Menon

Some humans spend a tremendous amount of effort to change landscapes from a “natural” state to a “developed” state for a variety of desirable economic uses, such as urban, agriculture, transportation, and mining. Others spend a tremendous amount of effort to prevent such development in order to conserve the landscapes for a variety of important environmental uses, such as biodiversity maintenance, carbon storage, water filtration, and landslide prevention. It would be efficient in theory if a society were to focus its development efforts at locations that give the largest economic utility per area developed, and to focus its conservation efforts …

Optimization Of Check Dams Through The Application Of Advanced Technologies, Praveen Jha Dr

Praveen Jha Dr

Scientific planning for conserving water and while minimizing the financial resources requirement for its implementation could be done through application of advanced technological programs developed by the author. Three state-of-art geo-spatial programs - Multi-Algorithm Automation Program (MAAP), Water Analysis Program (WAP) and Check Dam Optimization Program (CDOP) - would be used. MAAP produces land use land cover (lulc) map primarily by undertaking Digital Image Processing (DIP) of satellite data in an automated fashion using Artificial Intelligence (AI). WAP, a hydrology modeling program, would be used to generate information related to watershed, water flow, water accumulation etc. CDOP, coupled with MAAP …

Management Of Forests Through The Application Of Advanced Technologies, Praveen Jha Dr

Praveen Jha Dr

Several state-of-art geo-spatial programs developed by the author could be applied to generate technological pathways for providing an integrated solution to the loads of problems in the forests in the most scientific, objective and effective manner so that the management prescriptions incorporating policy interventions may prove to be highly successful. Three state-of-art geo-spatial programs - Multi-Algorithm Automation Program (MAAP), Data Automatic Modification Program (DAMP) and Multi-Stage Simulation Program (MUSSIP) – developed to address the pertinent issues of conservation and sustainability could be used extensively. Based on satellite data, MAAP produces land use land cover (lulc) map of the present period, …

A Vegetation Based Approach To Biodiversity Gap Analysis In The Agastyamalai Region, Western Ghats, India, B. R. Ramesh, Shaily Menon, Kamaljit S. Bawa

Shaily Menon

Protected areas in India have historically been established on an ad hoc basis with little attention to the conservation value of an area. This study focuses on a set of protected areas in the Agastyamalai region of the Western Ghats (WG), India. We examine forest loss and land-use changes in the study area from the early 1900s to 1960 and from 1960 to 1990. We use GIS to perform a biodiversity gap analysis of the protected areas in the study site. We produce a detailed map of existing floristic types and use it to generate layers corresponding to floristic species …

Cloning And Conservation Of Biological Diversity: Paradox, Panacea, Or Pandora's Box?, Shaily Menon, Kamaljit Bawa, Leah Gorman

Shaily Menon

The success of a Scottish team in cloning a mammal from an adult tissue cell has generated considerable speculation in the popular press about potential applications to conservation biology. Possibilities that have been mentioned include cloning endangered species and creating gene banks for the germplasm of rare species. Sensational or inaccurate reports might encourage the mistaken notion that cloning technology is more advanced or reliable than it actually is. More important, such reports might foster the myth that there is no longer an urgency to conserve endangered species or their habitats as long as we have frozen germplasm and cloning …

Effectiveness Of The Protected Area Network In Biodiversity Conservation: A Case-Study Of Meghalaya State, M. Latif Khan, Shaily Menon, Kamaljit Bawa

Shaily Menon

The North-Eastern region of India is significant for biodiversity conservation because of its floristic richness and high levels of endemism. Deforestation levels are high in the region due to anthropogenic pressures. We accessed various literature sources to create a database for Meghalaya state containing information on plant species, habit, altitudinal distribution, endemism, and endangered status. Information on the existing protected area network (type, extent, and altitudinal representation) was added to the database. The database was used to assess the effectiveness of the existing protected area network in conserving the floristic biodiversity of the state. Of a total of 3331 plant …