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Australia has a rich terrestrial and marine biodiversity and high species endemism. However, the oceanic continent is facing the biodiversity extinction crisis. The primary factors are anthropogenic induced environmental changes, including wildlife habitat destruction through urbanisation and predation by feral animals (e.g. red foxes and feral cats), increased severity of diseases (e.g. chytridiomycosis and chlamydia), and increased occurrence of summer heat waves and bush fires. Stress physiology is a dynamic field of science based on the studies of endocrine system functioning in animals. The primary stress regulator is the hypothalamo-pituitary adrenal (interrenal) axis and glucocorticoids (corticosterone and/or cortisol) provide stress index across vertebrate groups. This review paper focuses on physiological stress assessments in Australian wildlife using examples of amphibians, reptiles, birds and marsupials. I provide a thorough discussion of pioneering studies that have shaped the field of stress physiology in Australian wildlife species. The main findings point towards key aspects of stress endocrinology research, such as quantification of biologically active levels of glucocorticoids, development of species-specific GC assays and applications of stress physiology approaches in field ecology and wildlife conservation programs. Furthermore, I also discuss the importance of chronic stress assessment in wildlife populations. Finally, I provide a conceptual framework presenting key research questions in areas of wildlife stress physiology research. In conclusion, wildlife management programs can immensely benefit from stress physiology assessments to gauge the impact of human interventions on wildlife such as species translocation and feral species eradication.

Land-use change is a major cause of wildlife habitat loss. Understanding how changes in land-use policies and economic factors can impact future trends in land use and wildlife habitat loss is therefore critical for conservation efforts. Our goal here was to evaluate the consequences of future land-use changes under different conservation policies and crop market conditions on habitat loss for wildlife species in the southeastern United States. We predicted the rates of habitat loss for 336 terrestrial vertebrate species by 2051. We focused on habitat loss due to the expansion of urban, crop, and pasture. Future land-use changes following business-as-usual conditions resulted in relatively low rates of wildlife habitat loss across the entire Southeast, but some ecoregions and species groups experienced much higher habitat loss than others. Increased crop commodity prices exacerbated wildlife habitat loss in most ecoregions, while the implementation of conservation policies (reduced urban sprawl, and payments for land conservation) reduced the projected habitat loss in some regions, to a certain degree. Overall, urban and crop expansion were the main drivers of habitat loss. Reptiles and wildlife species associated with open vegetation (grasslands, open woodlands) were the species groups most vulnerable to future land-use change. Effective conservation of wildlife habitat in the Southeast should give special consideration to future land-use changes, regional variations, and the forces that could shape land-use decisions.

The tiger (Panthera tigris) is highly endangered through out its range and one of the impediments to effective tiger conservation is the lack of simple and cost effective methods for monitoring of wild tiger populations. With an aim to find a rapid, cost effective, and statistically robust methodology to take quick management decisions, observations of tiger and co-predator sign in administrative subunits (beats) of the Similipal Tiger Reserve, located between 200 28’ and 220 08’ North latitude, and 860 04’ and 860 37’ East longitude in India, were subjected to an occupancy estimation and modeling analysis. Several environmental factors were identified as covariates with explanatory power for the pattern of observations of tiger sign. Most important of these were the proportion of the area of the beat that is classified as disturbed habitat, the distance between the beat and the nearest inhabited place, and the total number of prey observed in the beat in a separate set of surveys for ungulates and other tiger prey species. The results of this analysis have clear management implications for the reserve, with beats classifiable into four categories, each with its own target strategy for increasing tiger abundance. These categories are: highest concern, reduce disturbance, increase prey protection, and maintain current protection. This study suggests that occupancy estimation and modeling from surveys of large mammalian predator sign is a simple cost-effective statistically robust methodology that can be performed by the management staff of a reserve and can be used to engage members of the local population in conservation.

At the start of the third millennium, new opportunities have arisen in biogeographical research, namely in the generalisation, visualisation and cross-spectrum analysis of biological and geographical information and in the compilation of biogeographical maps and innovative models for regions that differ in the availability of distribution data. These tasks include long-term monitoring of plants and animals which are in danger of extinction, geographical analysis of biodiversity distribution and development of effective wildlife conservation strategies for specific regions. The studies of the Department of Biogeography of Moscow University on geography and biodiversity conservation are based on long-term field expeditions. The examples of the Asian Subarctic Mountains, the steppes of Central Kazakhstan and the urbanised north-west of Russia are used to illustrate Russian approaches to the use of biogeographical monitoring for the identification of priority areas for biodiversity conservation. The species populations of the higher plants and vertebrates listed in the Red Books have been considered as the basic units of biodiversity.

This chapter summarizes what is known about the conservation implications of mixed-species grouping and mixed-species associations more generally. Using mostly data on mixed-species bird flocks, the text highlights how groups generally diminish in size and frequency outside forests, and reviews what is, and is not, known about the cause of these occurrences. This chapter then shifts to focusing on what can be done now to protect important locations or species and to restore habitat that has been degraded.

Papua New Guinea is the third largest remaining area of tropical forest after the Amazon and Congo basins. However, the growing intensity of large-scale slash-and-burn agriculture and logging call for conservation research to assess how local people's traditional land-use practices result in conservation of local biodiversity, of which a species-rich and diverse component is the avian community. With this in mind, I conducted a preliminary survey of birds in small-scale secondary plots and in adjacent primary forest in Wanang Conservation Area in Papua New Guinea. I used mist-netting, point counts, and transect walks to compare the bird communities of 7-year-old secondary growth, and neighboring primary forest. The preliminary survey lasted 10 days and was conducted during the dry season (July) of 2008. I found no significant differences in summed bird abundances between forest types. However, species richness was higher in primary forest (98 species) than in secondary (78 species). The response of individual feeding guilds was also variable. Two habitats differed mainly in presence of canopy frugivores, which were more abundant (more than 80%) in primary than in secondary forests. A large difference (70%) was found also in understory and mid-story insectivores. Species occurring mainly in secondary forest were Hooded Butcherbird ( Cracticus cassicus), Brown Oriole ( Oriolus szalayi), and Helmeted Friarbird ( Philemon buceroides). Examples of primary forest species were Red-bellied Pitta ( Pitta erythrogaster), Little Kingfisher ( Alcedo pusilla), and Zoe's Imperial Pigeon ( Ducula zoeae). My results suggest that changes in bird assemblages occur even in relatively undisturbed landscapes in response to small-scale shifting agriculture that is crucial for local people's livelihood; it also seems that traditional land use by local people favors the persistence of a rich bird species pool in the forested and traditionally managed landscape.

The overarching goal of United States wildlife action plans is to prevent wildlife from becoming endangered or declining to levels where recovery becomes unlikely. Effective plan implementation depends on establishing Species of Greatest Conservation Need (SGCN), defined as wildlife species with small or declining populations or other characteristics that make them vul- nerable.

The global amphibian crisis has resulted in renewed interest in captive breeding as a conservation tool for amphibians. Although captive breeding and reintroduction are controversial management actions, amphibians possess a number of attributes that make them potentially good models for such programs. We reviewed the extent and effectiveness of captive breeding and reintroduction programs for amphibians through an analysis of data from the Global Amphibian Assessment and other sources. Most captive breeding and reintroduction programs for amphibians have focused on threatened species from industrialized countries with relatively low amphibian diversity. Out of 110 species in such programs, 52 were in programs with no plans for reintroduction that had conservation research or conservation education as their main purpose. A further 39 species were in programs that entailed captive breeding and reintroduction or combined captive breeding with relocations of wild animals. Nineteen species were in programs with relocations of wild animals only. Eighteen out of 58 reintroduced species have subsequently bred successfully in the wild, and 13 of these species have established self-sustaining populations. As with threatened amphibians generally, amphibians in captive breeding or reintroduction programs face multiple threats, with habitat loss being the most important. Nevertheless, only 18 out of 58 reintroduced species faced threats that are all potentially reversible. When selecting species for captive programs, dilemmas may emerge between choosing species that have a good chance of surviving after reintroduction because their threats are reversible and those that are doomed to extinction in the wild as a result of irreversible threats. Captive breeding and reintroduction programs for amphibians require long-term commitments to ensure success, and different management strategies may be needed for species earmarked for reintroduction and species used for conservation research and education.

Some conservation organizations publish magazines that showcase current conservation and research projects, attract new subscribers and maintain membership, often using flagship species to promote these objectives. This study investigates the nature of flagship species featured on the covers of ten representative US conservation and nature magazines, Defenders, National Wildlife, Wildlife Conservation, Zoonooz, Nature Conservancy, Outdoor America, Sierra, Audubon, California Wild and Natural History. Operationally defining flagship species by diet, taxonomic order, body size and IUCN status, we found that magazines tend to use mammal and bird species rather than invertebrate, fish, amphibian, reptile or plant taxa on their covers. Featured birds were mostly omnivorous or piscivorous, large-bodied and of little conservation concern; featured mammals were mainly carnivorous or herbivorous, large-bodied and of considerable conservation concern. These analyses confirm, for the first time, anecdotal observations about conservation organizations focusing their publicity and programmes on large, charismatic species to raise awareness and funds and raise the spectre that the public may be exposed to only a selected sample of conservation problems.

Animal behavior plays a critical role in conservation efforts. Efforts to captively breed endangered species hinge on understanding the species’ habitat requirements, mating behavior, and parent–offspring interactions. Conservation of species in the wild by creating sanctuaries is most successful if aspects of behavior such as territoriality, dispersal, and migration are factored into sanctuary design. Animal behavior gives biologists tools for measuring the level of disturbance that humans create for wild populations. Encroachment of humans into wildlife habitats makes human–wildlife interactions more frequent and behavior gives us clues about how to minimize negative impacts of humans on wildlife as well as how to help humans avoid injury when they encounter wildlife. Some species of wildlife have become more adept at living in towns and cities, bringing with them damage to landscaping, risk of disease spread, and in some cases risk of injury to humans or their companion animals. Animal behavior helps us to understand how to minimize these impacts and how to improve human–animal co‐existence in urban and suburban settings. As human populations continue to expand and climate change impacts on wildlife intensify, knowledge of animal behavior will become increasingly important in conservation efforts.

This work assesses current geographic prospects for large-scale conservation of Africa’s mammals on the basis of statistics on wildlife habitat, elephant numbers, political stability and potential for environmental tourism and concludes that these prospects depend on events in a small number of eastern and southern African (core) countries, geographically grouped into a ‘safari-belt’ between South-Africa and Kenya. Additional countries with good potential are connected to this belt. African countries need more global scientific support for their conservation efforts, particularly with respect to ongoing trans-boundary conservation efforts.

This paper presents modeling approaches for wildlife and species conservation with a special emphasis on large mammals in a developing country setting. In such countries there are frequently conflicts over land use and species conservation, and institutions for managing conflicts are often weak or even lacking. In addition, most of the world species and biodiversity are found in developing countries. Two main issues are discussed. First, we study a situation where the wildlife is valuable, but is considered a pest by the local people living close to the wildlife. Second, we consider models with a discrepancy between management geography and biological geography, and where the species flows between a conservation area with no harvesting and a neighboring area with harvesting and possible habitat degradation.

Historically, Kuwait is the home for 28 mammalian, over 300 bird, and 40 reptilian species. Expanding human population and technology are increasingly altering Kuwait's natural habitat. Such alterations have lead to the disappearance of many native wildlife species. Currently, eight mammalian species have been eradicated locally but are available elsewhere in the Arabian Peninsula. I have developed a priority system for reintroduction efforts for these species or other wildlife species in the area. This system will help decision makers in efforts to conserve Kuwait's wildlife biodiversity. The application of this system requires the accumulation of basic information about species. The most important of such information is related to the historic range and major extinction factors for each of the local species.

This chapter analyses the debate about reproductive cloning of endangered species. Humans first domesticated chickens, cattle and sheep in order to produce reliable food sources. Efforts to improve livestock led to the science of animal husbandry and eventually to the large-scale factory farms characteristic of modern societies. The technologies that enable reproductive cloning of endangered species have their roots in the imperative to improve the productivity of farm animals, making their use for environmental reasons controversial within the broad field of conservation. Allies in the war against extinction often find themselves at odds over whether or not cloning should be incorporated into the conservation genetics tool-box. Opponents raise concerns both about the diversion of scarce resources from habitat preservation and the vexed question of which species should be chosen as candidates for such high-tech interventions. Advocates counter that any tool that can stave off the rapid disappearance of genetic diversity is essential to consider and ethically justified. In order to address these arguments, this chapter begins with an historical account of the simultaneous emergence of the animal welfare movement and modern biotechnology in the late 19th century. It then turns to a discussion of mid-20th century advances in biotechnology, particularly with respect to cloned and transgenic animals. The chapter concludes by analyzing advances in endangered species cloning since the birth in 2001 of Noah, a baby gaur and the first endangered species to be cloned via somatic-cell nuclear transfer. The conclusion of the chapter focuses on the social and ethical implications of preservation in a petri dish.

Wildlife biologists have been designing habitat models for over 50 years; however, the use of the Ecosystem Management Decision Support system (EMDS) in association with modeling is a relatively recent addition to the field. EMDS has proven its usefulness to habitat modeling and evaluation through successful application to a number of large landscape (>5000 km2) studies. While EMDS cannot be used to model wildlife populations directly, past efforts have incorporated population data, along with a variety of other indicators. Here, we provide an overview of previous modeling efforts, with an emphasis on the northern spotted owl (Strix occidentalis caurina). We then review applications of EMDS to wildlife modeling, before delving into a case study. In that study, the Washington State Department of Natural Resources (DNR) used EMDS to assess the impacts of alternative forest management strategies on dispersal habitat for spotted owls. We discuss how expert workshops were used to define three separate EMDS models to assess and score patches of foraging, roosting, and movement habitat across a large landscape. We used the habitat scores to develop a dispersal habitat model outside of EMDS, which incorporated graph theory concepts and a variable resistance landscape surface to assess the connectivity of owl dispersal habitat.

Despite formidable challenges and few successes in reintroducing large cats from captivity to the wild, the release of captives has widespread support from the general public and local governments, and continues to occur ad hoc. Commercial so-called lion Panthera leo encounter operations in Africa exemplify the issue, in which the captive breeding of the lion is linked to claims of reintroduction and broader conservation outcomes. In this article we assess the capacity of such programmes to contribute to in situ lion conservation. By highlighting the availability of wild founders, the unsuitability of captive lions for release and the evidence-based success of wild–wild lion translocations, we show that captive-origin lions have no role in species restoration. We also argue that approaches to reintroduction exemplified by the lion encounter industry do not address the reasons for the decline of lions in situ, nor do they represent a model that can be widely applied to restoration of threatened felids elsewhere.

Wildlife tourism provides an opportunity to offset conservation costs and promote co-existence between people and wildlife. To promote conservation through wildlife tourism, one can use flagship species; charismatic species that increase awareness and public recognition of a site, and stimulate financial and political support for conservation. Due to their large area requirements and sensitivity to disturbance, promoting conservation of large carnivores automatically promotes conservation of other species, and the use of large carnivores as flagship species has been positively related to ecosystem conservation. In this study, we interviewed wildlife tourists to determine which large carnivores could serve as flagship species for the Zimbabwe component of the Kavango Zambezi Transfrontier Conservation Area (KAZA TFCA), an area that is expected to become a premier tourist destination and make a significant contribution to conservation. Based on likability and the possibility to raise funds and promote the area, lion (Panthera leo) was the most suitable flagship species, closely followed by leopard (Panthera pardus). Spotted hyaena (Crocuta crocuta) was the least suitable flagship species. Despite its endangered status, African wild dog (Lycaon pictus) did not seem to have a high potential to serve as a flagship species for the area. Although cheetah (Acinonyx jubatus) was less often mentioned as a species tourists were hoping to see or a favourite species seen, cheetah was liked as much as lion and leopard and provided similar potential to raise funds and promote the area. Flagship species status does not have to apply to a single species, it can also successfully apply to a cohort of species. With the KAZA TFCA being in the unique position of harbouring the largest free-roaming cheetah population in Zimbabwe, it would be appropriate if the area was promoted by using large cats as a flagship species cohort.

This review considers interactive management of wild and zoo populations as a stratesy to support habitat preservation, help sustain key endangered species, and hasten the evolution of zoos and aquaria as proactive conservation organizations. Interactive management supports key species' subpopulations in an integrated fashion, using their study in nature as a way to understand wildlife habitats, ecological processes and conservation threats. In the face of human increase and habitat destruction, the survival of much wildlife will depend upon the utility of fragments of habitat and the survival of relatively small populations whose habitats are reduced or altered and whose numbers are capped. Under such conditions, interactive wild-captive metapopulation strategies may increase the security of key species. Captive propagation skills and urban locations pre-adapt zoos as headquarters for nature preservation. Thus, a key objective in zoo evolution is to focus upon the species and its habitat as the unit of conservation, not the species alone.

With emphasis on practical application and quantitative skill development, this, the third edition of Wildlife Ecology, Conservation and Management, weaves together three disparate elements in a si...

Sacred groves and community forests are common ways for local rural African people to conserve natural resources. The importance of traditional approach in wildlife conservation was evaluated with line transect method utilized to assess five community forests. Comparable species richness with similar size protected forests of the same regions were reported. However, fauna composition in community forests was dominated by animals that can inhabit anthropogenic habitats like rodents, primates and small antelopes. We concluded the necessity to accompany such local initiatives mainly in regions lacking protected areas in order to give more chance to protect wildlife for present and future generation. © 2010 International Formulae Group. All rights reserved. Keywords: Community forest, wildlife, conservation, Benin.

This chapter discusses three trends in people–wildlife interactions. First is direct interaction with wildlife through consumptive and nonconsumptive uses that is largely recreational in nature. Second trend is the restoration of landscapes and the wildlife, which depends on them. Third is indirect impact on wildlife caused by “amenity migration” where people are increasingly purchasing and building seasonal or permanent homes on forested and other natural lands because of their amenity values. Landscape restoration is becoming a major means of land management as people increasingly value the existence of native species and an understanding of ecological principles. Landscape restoration involves the re-establishment of vegetation structure, native plant species, and natural disturbance processes such as fire that maintain plant communities; and the removal of roads, invasive species, and human activities such as cattle grazing or off-road recreation that are incompatible with the native ecosystem. Reserve selection models are based on information about the distribution of species or other conservation features among sites and targets for protecting those features. Each site is described by a list of species that it contains, and a species is covered or represented if at least one site that contains the species is selected for protection.

The expansion of non-indigenous crayfish in Europe and the damage caused by them on indigenous species and habitats is a cause for increasing concern. Yet there is a great deal of variation in the measures put in place to control introductions of crayfish in different countries in Europe and indeed within countries. Recommendations from a conference on the future of native crayfish in Europe were that there is a need for much tighter regulation on the sale of non-indigenous crayfish within Europe, including a need to prevent the introduction of more species via the aquarium trade. There is a clear need to identify the threats to remaining populations of indigenous crayfish regionally and nationally and to provide well-enforced biosecurity measures to help protect these populations. It was recognised that this can only be done with concerted efforts on education and information sharing, because without public cooperation, the on-going trend of decline in indigenous crayfish will continue.

The dependency of highly endemic island floras on few potential pollinators in depauperate island faunas suggests that pollinators and seed dispersers may be crucial in the preservation of biodiversity in isolated oceanic islands. We discuss the hypothesis that flying foxes are “strong interactors” in South Pacific islands where they setwe as the principal pollinators and seed dispersers, This suggests that the ongoing decline and ultimate extinction of flying fox species on Pacific islands may lead to a cascade of linked plant extinctions. We propose an empirical test of this hypothesis: comparisons of plant reproductive success in Guam, which has virtually lost its flying fox populations, and Samoa, where signifcant populations remain. Resumen: La dependencia de floras islenas altamente endemicas en algunos polinizadores potenciales en faunas islenas depauperizadas sugiere que 10s polinizadores y 10s dispersadores de semillas pueden ser cruciales en la conservacion de la diversidad biologica en islas oceanicas aisladas. Discutimos la hipotesis de que 10s murcielagos fncgiwros (Pteropus sp.) son fuertes interactores en las islas del Pacico sur, en donde funcionan como 10s principales agentes de polinizacion y de dispersion de semillas Esto sugiere que la continua disminucion y futura extincion de las especies de murcielagos fncgivoros podri'an llevara una extincion de plani2i.s en cadena Hemos propuesto una pwb a empinca de esta hipotesis, mediante la comparacidn del exito reproductivo de lasplantas en Guam, quepracticamente ha perdido sus poblaciones de murcielagos fncgiwros, con el de Samoa, donde persisten poblaciones impmtantes.

We investigate the challenges of using payments for environmental services (PES) to protect endangered species given habitat fragmentation in conjunction with disease risks from neighboring livestock. Using a bioeconomic model, we show how greater connectivity of habitat creates an endogenous trade-off. More connectedness both (1) increases growth of endangered species populations, while (2) simultaneously increasing the likelihood diseases will spread more quickly. We examine payments for habitat connectedness, livestock vaccination, and reduced movement of infected livestock. We find the cost-effective policy to first use subsidies to promote habitat contiguousness. Once habitat is sufficiently connected, disease risks increase to the point where disease-related subsidies become worthwhile. Highly connected habitat requires nearly all the government budget be devoted to disease prevention and control. The conservation payments result in significantly increased wildlife abundance, increased livestock health and abundance, and increased development opportunities.

No Abstract.