2015 Conference

Full Presentation Panel

Roads and African elephants in a small South African reserve: Understanding the impacts of roads on space use of wildlife

Katherine Orrick

The ecological effects of roads are considered to be one of the most significant sources of ecosystem disturbance. As the human population continues to expand there is an increasing demand for more extensive road systems that overlap wildlife’s home ranges. In many instances roads will constrict the movements of the wildlife. It is critical to recognize species true use of space versus available space, especially individuals already in small, protected areas. While many studies have observed the direct effect of road disturbance on wildlife, such as road mortality and fragmentation, few studies have looked at indirect effects, such as noise pollution and visual disturbance. This study analyzes the impact of public roads surrounding Karongwe Private Game Reserve, an 8000ha fenced reserve in the Limpopo Province of South Africa, on a herd of African elephants (Loxodonta africana). Six years of elephant data are examined to determine if the bordering roads within 50m of the reserve impact the individuals. GIS and Generalized Linear models were created based on the distance of elephant locations from different anthropogenic disturbances (public dirt road, public paved road, fences) and natural features (vegetation, rivers, water sources). General trends indicate that public roads negatively impact both the breeding herd and the adult bulls. The research will provide vital information about the future of small, protected areas on large mammals such as elephants. If a species avoids roads due to disturbance, conservation measures must be taken to prevent further human-wildlife impacts and address infrastructure expansion near preserved lands. The results of this study can contribute to improving development around conservation areas in South Africa as well as refine elephant-inhabited protected areas all over the world.

Return of the Red Wolf

Peter Kimball Brewitt

Among the most profound impacts humanity has had upon the North American landscape is the extirpation of large predators from nearly all regions. In recent years, stakeholder efforts to reintroduce predators to historic habitats have faced significant political and ecological challenges; no case has been more complex than the reintroduction of the red wolf (Canis rufus) to the American South. Red wolves, far less known than gray wolves (Canis lupus) historically inhabited much of the southern and eastern United States but their population has dwindled to a few hundred individuals, all under intensive management and protection. In this paper I examine the politics and policy of red wolf reintroduction and the public response to the renewed presence of wolves in the densely-populated East. The work will provide contrast to studies of wolf reintroduction elsewhere and more broadly, will shed light on the politics of ecological restoration and large predators.

Slow loris trade in Vietnam: Examining drivers and trade networks

Dr. Gautam Sethi, PhD

Wildlife trade presents a major threat to endangered species such as slow lorises (Primates; Nycticebus spp.) in Southeast Asia, where high levels of trade continue despite increased regulatory efforts. Interdisciplinary approaches can illuminate the complexity, drivers, and scales of trade networks. As part of a larger project that integrates biological, anthropological, and economic data collection and analyses, we conducted 64 semi-structured interviews with members of four villages inside two protected areas in Vietnam. We also conducted 7 in-depth interviews with key informants across Vietnam. Interviews were open-ended and included questions on: reasons to engage in trade, methods of capture, trade networks, trends in demand and price, and uses and cultural values. Our interviews suggest that trade in lorises has increased over the last decade, but the increase is related to new regional, tourist, and urban markets rather than local ones. We infer differences between actors, prices, drivers, uses, and networks that characterize two distinct markets in the slow loris trade: local versus regional. These preliminary results confirm the dynamic complexity of trade in Vietnam across temporal and spatial scales. Future work will include integration with biological data to further understand trade patterns, expanded interviews across Vietnam, and additional data collection on other trade-targeted species groups in the region.

Can we assess our tolerance of Grey Wolves? A presentation of results of a national survey

Ajay Sarangdevot Singh

Prior research assessing levels of public tolerance of establishing or increasing populations of controversial wildlife species has not been well grounded in social science theory. Recently, federal and state decisions to delist the Grey Wolf from protection under the ESA in areas of the Northern Rocky Mountains were based, in part, on the assumption that tolerance of Grey Wolves were at levels which would not significantly decrease  the species population. To address the lack of an appropriate measure of tolerance for wildlife, Bruskotter et al (2015) tested a proposed measure of tolerance for Grey Wolves. To further test the proposed measure for tolerance a national survey of the U.S. general public (n = 1,473) was conducted in February, 2014. Preliminary results suggest a strong correlation between attitudes towards Grey Wolves and intentions to engage in intolerant behaviors or stewardship behaviors. These findings have both theoretical and policy implications.    

Reconciling Late Pleistocene, Anthropocene, and Other Extinction Labels: Navigating Extinction Borders and Why that Navigation Matters

Dr. Jeff Yule, PhD 

Extinctions—from those that predate humanity, including the so-called Big Five events, to the more recent late Pleistocene megafaunal extinctions, to a range of historical species losses—have long been a matter of broad cultural and academic interest. A key aspect of our growing understanding of the subject relates to the boundaries we create to distinguish between extinction in general and mass extinction events in particular. At least equally important, however, is the way that research has clarified the duration of mass extinctions, thereby influencing the delineations we can draw between extinction events. More generally, since the 1980s our growing understanding of extinction has significantly influenced our ability to identify and articulate environmental concerns. The biology underlying discussions of such topics as ecological footprint, carrying capacity, and habitat fragmentation have been increasingly—but as yet incompletely—integrated into environmental discourse as a result two factors: (1) variations in the ways in which scientific, popular, and literary communication characterizes extinction and (2) the borders separating those engaged in communicating their varied perspectives on the subject. By analyzing these three different but overlapping characterizations of extinction, this presentation will provide a fuller perspective on and understanding of the subject. The presentation will focus particular attention on two of the Big Five mass extinctions (the end-Permian and Cretaceous-Tertiary events), one smaller extinction (the late Pleistocene event), and two novels—Ursula LeGuin’s Always Coming Home (1985) and William Gibson’s The Peripheral (2014)—in light of popular science treatments of extinction, particularly David Quammen’s Song of the Dodo (1996).