Behavioral Approaches to Conservation in the Wild

Today's conservation literature emphasises landscape ecology and population genetics without addressing the behavioral links that enable the long term survival of populations. This book presents theoretical and practical arguments for considering behavior patterns in attempts to conserve biodiversity. Prominent scientists and wildlife managers are brought together in this volume to address a number of issues, including the limits and potentials of behavioral research to conservation, the importance of behavioral variation as a component of biodiversity, and the use of animal behavior to solve conservation problems and provide specific direction for research and management practices. The book emphasises conservation of wild populations as opposed to captive and reintroduced populations, where behavioral research has concentrated in the past. The variety of expertise in this volume demonstrates that the complete ethological framework, not just behavioral ecology, provides valuable techniques and knowledge for conserving biodiversity.