Behavioural Approaches to Conservation in the Wild

Abstract

Behavioural Approaches to Conservation in the Wild is based on a series of papers from a symposium entitled "Conservation and Behaviour in the Wild" held during the Animal Behaviour Society annual meetings in Lincoln, Nebraska in 1995. The book was compiled because the editors (and others) felt that both behavioural researchers and conservation biologists did not adequately recognize the important role that behavioural studies could play in conservation efforts. Traditionally, behavioural researchers have limited the conservation applications of their research to captive breeding and reintroduction programmes of endangered species, while conservation biologists have focussed on landscape design and ecosystem restoration without necessarily considering animal behaviour. The objectives of the book are twofold: to stimulate behavioural researchers to think about how their work can contribute to conservation of biological diversity, and to show conservation biologists the relevance of behavioural research in solving conservation problems. As expected given the location of the symposium and the high proportion of northern hemisphere contributors, most examples presented are from that region.