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Books > Earth & environment > The environment > Conservation of the environment > Conservation of wildlife & habitats > Endangered species & extinction of species
The editors utilize their 50 years of combined experience in
professional engagement with the behaviour and ecology of wild
felids to draw together a unique network of the world's most
respected and knowledgeable experts. For the first time, this
inter-disciplinary research programme is brought together within a
single volume.
Beginning with a complete account of all 36 felid species, there
follow 8 comprehensive review chapters that span all the topics
most relevant to felid conservation science, including evolution
and systematics, felid form and function, genetic applications,
behavioural ecology, management of species that come into conflict
with people and control of international trade in felid species,
conservation tools/techniques, ex situ management, and felid
diseases. 19 detailed case studies then delve deeply into syntheses
of the very best species investigations worldwide, written by all
the leading figures in the field. These chapters portray the unique
attributes of the wild felids, describe their fascinating (and
conflicting) relationship with humans, and create an unparalleled
platform for future research and conservation measures. A final
chapter analyses the requirements of, and inter-disciplinary
approaches to, practical conservation with cutting-edge examples of
conservation science and action that go far beyond the cat family.
Following the downgrading of the snow leopard's status from
"endangered" to "vulnerable" by the International Union for
Conservation of Nature in 2017, debate has renewed about the actual
number of snow leopards in the wild and the most effective
strategies for coexisting with these enigmatic animals. Evidence
from Pakistan and other countries in the snow leopard's home range
shows that they rely heavily on human society-domestic livestock
accounts for as much as 70 percent of their diet. Maintaining that
the snow leopard is a "wild" animal, conservation NGOs and state
agencies have enacted laws that punish farmers for attacking these
predators, while avoiding engaging with efforts to mitigate the
harms suffered by farmers whose herds are reduced by snow leopards.
This ethnography examines the uneven distribution of costs and
benefits involved in snow leopard conservation and shows that for
the conservation of nature to be successful, the vision, interests,
and priorities of those most affected by conservation policies-in
this case, local farmers-must be addressed. A case history of
Project Snow Leopard in the mountains of northern Pakistan, which
inspired similar programs in India, Bhutan, Nepal, Mongolia,
Afghanistan and Tajikistan, describes how the animal's food habits
are studied, how elusive individuals are counted, and how a novel
kind of "snow leopard insurance" has protected the species by
compensating farmers for livestock losses. The Snow Leopard and the
Goat demonstrates that characterizing this conflict as one between
humans (farmers) and wildlife (snow leopards) is misleading, as the
real conflict is between two human groups-farmers and
conservationists-who see the snow leopard differently.
Lively, colorful, and skillfully made fabric "portraits" of 182
endangered species bring them to real, vibrant life. Each portrait
features fascinating animal and plant facts from rescuers,
scientists, conservationists, and more: where they live, what their
superpowers are, why they are at risk, and how we can help.
Dedicated and passionate people who work to protect endangered
species share details of their roles and specialties, the planning
behind conservation measures, threats to healthy habitats, and
inspiring success stories. This book fosters eco-awareness and
responsibility with a hopeful and positive tone, not only educating
but inspiring action. A percentage of money earned by the author
from the sale of this book will be donated to the Sea Turtle
Conservancy and to the WILD Foundation.
The Great Auk is one of the world's most famous extinct birds. This curious seabird was flightless, stood upright like a human, and sported an enormous beak. In this fascinating book, Jeremy A. Gaskell takes the reader on a tour of some of the wildest and coldest places on earth as he tries to uncover the facts behind its disappearance, and the reasons why attempts to save it were in vain.
Thoroughly researched and finely crafted, "After the Grizzly"
traces the history of endangered species and habitat in California,
from the time of the Gold Rush to the present. Peter S. Alagona
shows how scientists and conservationists came to view the fates of
endangered species as inextricable from ecological conditions and
human activities in the places where those species lived.
Focusing on the stories of four high-profile endangered
species--the California condor, desert tortoise, Delta smelt, and
San Joaquin kit fox--Alagona offers an absorbing account of how
Americans developed a political system capable of producing and
sustaining debates in which imperiled species serve as proxies for
broader conflicts about the politics of place. The challenge for
conservationists in the twenty-first century, this book claims,
will be to redefine habitat conservation beyond protected wildlands
to build more diverse and sustainable landscapes.
Scores of wild species and ecosystems around the world face a
variety of human-caused threats, from habitat destruction and
fragmentation to rapid climate change. But there is hope, and it,
too, comes in a most human form: zoos and aquariums. Gathering a
diverse, multi-institutional collection of leading zoo and aquarium
scientists as well as historians, philosophers, biologists, and
social scientists, The Ark and Beyond traces the history and
underscores the present role of these organizations as essential
conservation actors. It also offers a framework for their future
course, reaffirming that if zoos and aquariums make biodiversity
conservation a top priority, these institutions can play a vital
role in tackling conservation challenges of global magnitude. While
early menageries were anything but the centers of conservation that
many zoos are today, a concern with wildlife preservation has been
an integral component of the modern, professionally run zoo since
the nineteenth century. From captive breeding initiatives to
rewilding programs, zoos and aquariums have long been at the
cutting edge of research and conservation science, sites of
impressive new genetic and reproductive techniques. Today, their
efforts reach even further beyond recreation, with educational
programs, community-based conservation initiatives, and
international, collaborative programs designed to combat species
extinction and protect habitats at a range of scales. Addressing
related topics as diverse as zoo animal welfare, species
reintroductions, amphibian extinctions, and whether zoos can truly
be “wild,” this book explores the whole range of research and
conservation practices that spring from zoos and aquariums while
emphasizing the historical, scientific, and ethical traditions that
shape these efforts. Also featuring an inspiring foreword by the
late George Rabb, president emeritus of the Chicago Zoological
Society / Brookfield Zoo, The Ark and Beyond illuminates these
institutions’ growing significance to the preservation of global
biodiversity in this century.
One of the greatest unmet challenges in conservation biology is the
genetic management of fragmented populations of threatened animal
and plant species. More than a million small, isolated, population
fragments of threatened species are likely suffering inbreeding
depression and loss of evolutionary potential, resulting in
elevated extinction risks. Although these effects can often be
reversed by re-establishing gene flow between population fragments,
managers very rarely do this. On the contrary, genetic methods are
used mainly to document genetic differentiation among populations,
with most studies concluding that genetically differentiated
populations should be managed separately, thereby isolating them
yet further and dooming many to eventual extinction! Many small
population fragments are going extinct principally for genetic
reasons. Although the rapidly advancing field of molecular genetics
is continually providing new tools to measure the extent of
population fragmentation and its genetic consequences, adequate
guidance on how to use these data for effective conservation is
still lacking. This accessible, authoritative text is aimed at
senior undergraduate and graduate students interested in
conservation biology, conservation genetics, and wildlife
management. It will also be of particular relevance to conservation
practitioners and natural resource managers, as well as a broader
academic audience of conservation biologists and evolutionary
ecologists.
Extinction Studies focuses on the entangled ecological and social
dimensions of extinction, exploring the ways in which extinction
catastrophically interrupts life-giving processes of time, death,
and generations. The volume opens up important philosophical
questions about our place in, and obligations to, a more-than-human
world. Drawing on fieldwork, philosophy, literature, history, and a
range of other perspectives, each of the chapters in this book
tells a unique extinction story that explores what extinction is,
what it means, why it matters-and to whom.
Thoroughly researched and finely crafted, After the Grizzly traces
the history of endangered species and habitat in California, from
the time of the Gold Rush to the present. Peter S. Alagona shows
how scientists and conservationists came to view the fates of
endangered species as inextricable from ecological conditions and
human activities in the places where those species lived. Focusing
on the stories of four high-profile endangered species-the
California condor, desert tortoise, Delta smelt, and San Joaquin
kit fox-Alagona offers an absorbing account of how Americans
developed a political system capable of producing and sustaining
debates in which imperiled species serve as proxies for broader
conflicts about the politics of place. The challenge for
conservationists in the twenty-first century, this book claims,
will be to redefine habitat conservation beyond protected wildlands
to build more diverse and sustainable landscapes.
We are currently facing the sixth mass extinction of species in the
history of life on Earth, biologists claim the first one caused by
humans. Activists, filmmakers, writers, and artists are seeking to
bring the crisis to the public's attention through stories and
images that use the strategies of elegy, tragedy, epic, and even
comedy. Imagining Extinction is the first book to examine the
cultural frameworks shaping these narratives and images. Ursula K.
Heise argues that understanding these stories and symbols is
indispensable for any effective advocacy on behalf of endangered
species. More than that, she shows how biodiversity conservation,
even and especially in its scientific and legal dimensions, is
shaped by cultural assumptions about what is valuable in nature and
what is not. These assumptions are hardwired into even seemingly
neutral tools such as biodiversity databases and laws for the
protection of endangered species. Heise shows that the conflicts
and convergences of biodiversity conservation with animal welfare
advocacy, environmental justice, and discussions about the
Anthropocene open up a new vision of multispecies justice.
Ultimately, Imagining Extinction demonstrates that biodiversity,
endangered species, and extinction are not only scientific
questions but issues of histories, cultures, and values.
Allee effects are (broadly) defined as a decline in individual
fitness at low population size or density. They can result in
critical population thresholds below which populations crash to
extinction. As such, they are very relevant to many conservation
programmes, where scientists and managers are often working with
populations that have been reduced to low densities or small
numbers. There are a variety of mechanisms that can create Allee
effects including mating systems, predation, environmental
modification, and social interactions. The abrupt and unpredicted
collapses of many exploited populations is just one illustration of
the need to bring Allee effects to the forefront of conservation
and management strategies.
Allee Effects in Ecology and Conservation provides a concise yet
authoritative overview of the topic, collating and integrating a
widely dispersed literature from various fields - marine and
terrestrial, plant and animal, theoretical and empirical, academic
and applied. This accessible text, with its clear and simple
explanations of both empirical observations and theoretical
predications is particularly suitable for professional and academic
ecologists requiring an overview of the state-of-the-art in Allee
effect research, as well as for graduate students in population
ecology and conservation biology. It will also be of relevance to a
wide readership of professionals in conservation and management
requiring a concise summary of the topic.
Quaggas were beautiful pony-sized zebras in southern Africa that
had fewer stripes on their bodies and legs, and a browner body
coloration than other zebras. Indigenous people hunted quaggas,
portrayed them in rock art, and told stories about them. Settlers
used quaggas to pull wagons and to protect livestock against
predators. Taken to Europe, they were admired, exhibited, harnessed
to carriages, illustrated by famous artists and written about by
scientists. Excessive hunting led to quaggas' extinction in the
1880s but DNA from museum specimens showed rebreeding was feasible
and now zebras resembling quaggas live in their former habitats.
This rebreeding is compared with other de-extinction and rewilding
ventures and its appropriateness discussed against the backdrop of
conservation challenges-including those facing other zebras. In an
Anthropocene of species extinction, climate change and habitat loss
which organisms and habitats should be saved, and should attempts
be made to restore extinct species?
Because carnivores are at the top of the food chain, it is often argued that protecting them will afford adequate protection to other taxa as well. In the past ten years, theoretical and empirical studies on carnivores have developed very quickly. This volume reviews and summarizes the current state of the field, describes limitations and opportunities for carnivore conservation, and offers a conceptual framework for future research and applied management. It will be of interest to students and researchers of conservation biology, mammalogy, animal behavior, ecology, and evolution.
Twice declared extinct, North America’s most endangered mammal
species, the black-footed ferret (BFF), is making a comeback thanks
to an evolving conservation regimen at more than thirty
reintroduction sites across the continent. Lawrence Lenhart lingers
at one such site in his proverbial backyard, the Aubrey Valley in
northern Arizona. He clocks hundreds of hours behind the wheel,
rolling over ranch ruts as he shines a spotlight over dusky sage
steppe in the hopes of catching a fleck of emerald eyeshine. The
beguiling weasel at the center of this book is more than a
charismatic minifauna; it is the covert ambassador of a critical
ecosystem that has dwindled to 1 percent of its former size. In a
landscape menaced by habitat fragmentation, bacterial plague,
settler colonialism, and soil death, a ferret must be resilient.
Lenhart investigates the human efforts to sustain the species
through monitoring, vaccination, captive breeding, and even
cloning. Lenhart balances this lens of environmental witness with
personal essaying that captures the parallel story of his wife’s
pregnancy as he realizes the ferret’s conservation story is
dramatically synchronized with her trimesters. In preparing to
raise a child in the Anthropocene, Lenhart takes stock of his own
ecosystem and finds something is amiss. Through an ethic of "deeper
ecology," Lenhart must hone his ecological interest in the
black-footed ferret to assure it isn’t overshadowed by his own
paternal interests.
How does an understanding of the behavior of a given animal species contribute to its conservation? The answer has profound consequences for our efforts to conserve endangered species. Behaviour and Conservation links the extraordinary advances in behavioral ecology over the past thirty years with the new discipline of conservation biology. It shows how an evolutionary approach can help solve problems in practical conservation, and suggests a new direction for behavioral ecology. Leading authorities in animal behavior address the ways in which behavior and conservation interact, investigating the conservation impact of people, habitat loss and fragmentation, threats to wild populations of animals, conservation priorities, and the use of behavioral approaches for conservation applications.
Today's conservation literature emphasizes 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. It brings together prominent scientists and wildlife managers 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. Throughout, the text provides specific direction for research and management practices. The book is unique in its emphasis on conservation of wild populations as opposed to captive and reintroduced populations, where behavioral research has concentrated in the past.
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