Animal Behavior Society Conservation Committee The Conservation Behaviorist, an electronic news‐update, informs ABS members about the Conservation Committee’s activities, research trends in behavior and conservation, and relevant scientific news in conservation research where behavior plays an important role. www.animalbehavior.org/Committees/Conservation Interact with The Conservation Behaviorist The ABS Conservation Committee Send letters, announcements, comments and contributions Created in 1997, the Conservation Committee aims to to The Conservation Behaviorist [email protected] th encourage ABS members to participate in research Deadlines for articles are the 15 of the month preceding th programs addressing the interface between animal the next news update. The next deadline is April 15 . behavior and conservation science. By identifying and Contributions submitted by members of the Animal evaluating the areas in which behavioral research has Behavior Society and judged by the Conservation contributed to conservation, as well as the fields that Committee to be appropriate will be published in The need development, the Committee seeks to generate Conservation Behaviorist. The publication of such material discussion and promote studies in behavior and does not imply ABS or Conservation Committee conservation. endorsement of the opinions expressed by contributors. Editor Guillermo Paz­y­Miño C. Associate Editor Debra M. Shier * * * * * ABS Conservation Committee Members Colleen Cassady St. Clair, Chair Where does the University of Alberta, Canada Guillermo Paz­y­Miño C., Past Chair University of Massachusetts Dartmouth Daniel T. Blumstein conservation University of California Los Angeles Richard Buchholz University of Mississippi behaviorist fit in? John Eadie University of California, Davis FORUM: contrasting views by Richard Buchholz and Esteban Fernández­Juricic Colleen Cassady St. Clair, page 7 California State University, Long Beach Elizabeth V. Lonsdorf Lincoln Park Zoo In this issue Debra M. Shier Zoological Society of San Diego Bruce A. Schulte A Conversation with Daniel T. Blumstein: Georgia Southern University Ronald R. Swaisgood “…Society should care about conservation Zoological Society of San Diego behavior because behavioral biologists may have Ilonka von Lippke tools that can be used to help manage animal University of California Los Angeles Jessica Ward populations but have not yet been used. University of Toronto Understanding how animals choose mates, select Mark L. Wildhaber habitat, and avoid predators are all useful things Columbia Environmental Research Center that behavioral biologists study…,” page 2 Page 2 of 12 The Conservation Behaviorist Vol. 6, No. 2, 2008 A CONVERSATION WITH Society should care about conservation DANIEL T. BLUMSTEIN behavior because behavioral biologists may have tools that can be used to help manage animal “Society should care about conservation populations but have not yet been used. Understanding how animals choose mates, select behavior because behavioral biologists habitat, and avoid predators are all useful things may have tools that can be used to help that behavioral biologists study. Behaviorally manage animal populations but have ‘naïve’ management –derived from the fact that not yet been used. Understanding how many wildlife managers have never taken a animals choose mates, select habitat, behavior course and, therefore, do not to include and avoid predators are all useful things behavior in conservation decisions­ may be improved by applying the knowledge that we that behavioral biologists study…” says take for granted. Let's not get too cocky though; Blumstein. most behavioral biologists have never taken an environmental law or wildlife management Dan Blumstein has always been interested course and many know little about on­the­ in animals and their behavior. During his ground wildlife management problems or undergraduate studies at the University of realities. Colorado Boulder, he discovered that it was possible to study both behavior and I believe that whether or not behavior can help conservation biology. He has been doing that save species and/or be useful to management is ever since. His PhD combined behavioral an empirical question. I don't believe that we studies of marmots with community‐based should be forcing behavior into all conservation development in Northern Pakistan. During problems, but rather that there are some cases postdoctoral work in Australia, he began to where conservation outcomes may be improved focus on conservation behavior (a term he by applying tools that emerge from behavioral coined in a 2001 book review). He joined the biology. University of California Los Angeles in 2001, where he is now an Associate Professor of Q: You raise a crucial point, the importance of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology. conservation behavior for most conservationists. But, shouldn't most The Conservation Behaviorist interviewed conservation problems be minimized, and some Dan Blumstein; here is a summary of this perhaps even solved, if society at large leads dialog: itself to sustainability, economic growth, and environmental protection? Isn't a common Q: Why is conservation behavior important? phenomenon among scientistS who are really Why should society care about conservation committed to conservation to abandon research behavior? and join conservation action at governmental or non‐governmental levels? Blumstein: Let's not lose track of the problem: conservation behavior isn't important per se, Blumstein: Of course, if we addressed the root conservation is important. Preventing or causes of our problems (over­consumption, slowing the rate of species extinctions is population growth, and habitat destruction) we important. Recovering extinct populations is would have fewer conservation problems; important. And, managing populations can be however, we'd still have to deal with invasive important if, by doing so, we help maintain species. And, while living in sustainable ways may biodiversity. be the ultimate solution to much of our biodiversity crisis, there's still going to be single Page 3 of 12 The Conservation Behaviorist Vol. 6, No. 2, 2008 species management that needs to be done to particularly vulnerable to the introduction of save what we're losing now, and that's well new (or former) predators to their range. When I within the realm of conservation behavior. was thinking about the problem I was simultaneously thinking of the interesting conceptual problem and the applied problem. ‘Adaptive management’ has come from conservation/management. We have insights about ‘mate choice’ from those studying reproduction. An understanding of ‘endocrinology’ comes from physiology. ‘Habitat selection’ theory comes from behavioral ecology. ‘Learning and habituation’ has its roots in psychology. While none of these fields have been developed by conservation behaviorists, each includes specific sub­fields that might be useful when applied to a behavioral problem. Q: Scholars in conservation behavior seem to struggle bringing their work, not only to the public, but to their own audiences? Why is it so difficult to publish scientific articles about conservation behavior in the conservation or behavior journals? Blumstein: My opinion: because old guard behavioral biologists often are not interested in Daniel T. Blumstein © photo by M. Abt conservation and because conservation biologists Q: What major conceptual paradigms has are often not interested in behavior. Thus, conservation behavior generated to guide submissions to behavioral journals are often both the theoretical and empirical work in this perceived as too applied, and submissions to area? conservation journals are often perceived as too theoretical and irrelevant for conservation. This Blumstein: That's a hard question. Certainly, may change as we have more people who value managers should know about ecological traps, conservation behavior involved in editing and but I'm not sure the idea was specifically reviewing for the behavioral journals, but it’s – developed to solve a conservation problem. The still­ an uphill battle with the conservation more academic conservation behavior that journals. excites me is that which makes conceptual Studying advances and simultaneously offers suggestions tammar wallabies at for management. different sites that either had or did not have I believe my ‘multi­predator hypothesis’ is sympatric one of those ideas as it addresses the question predators, inspired of why there is variation in how long Blumstein to antipredator behavior persists, despite the loss propose the multi­predator of predators, and this principle can be applied hypothesis © to help understand which species might be photo by D T. Blumstein Page 4 of 12 The Conservation Behaviorist Vol. 6, No. 2, 2008 At some level, it's similar to the problem that And it seems that many of the people working in plagued the birth of conservation biology: conservation biology don't even come from a conservation was perceived as not being natural resource background! Conservation sufficiently academic. Of course conservation behavior works in the realm of single­species biology can be very academic and there are management problems. As long as there are conservation programs both in historically individual species that are being managed, there wildlife management departments as well as should be a need to see if knowledge of behavior more theoretically focused biology can be fruitfully applied to help improve