IUCN / SSC Cat Specialist Group - Digital Cat Library |
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| Hunter, L. | |
| "Why did you remove all those collars?" - Striking a balance between long-term research and implementing effective conservation | |
| 2015 The Wild Felid Monitor (8): 10-12 | |
Most large felids are declining, whether as a result of the pervasive, anthropogenic driven loss of habitat and prey, and/or due to direct persecution by people such as from depredation-related retaliatory killing or hunting for illegal markets (Hunter, in press). As the rate of decline increases and populations disappear (e.g. Henschel et al. 2014; Walston et al. 2010), the design and implementation of effective conservation action becomes more imperative. A key factor in this is the role of research. Strong science is essential to establish the impacts of threats to felids, design and monitor appropriate interventions and advocate for their execution. However, research on large carnivores often lacks a demonstrable link to conservation, and species management is frequently guided more by guesswork than by science (Ray et al. 2005). Conservation biology may be neglected in an academic setting because studies often lack rigorous experimental designs or clear a priori hypotheses, sample sizes are usually small and results may not lend themselves to robust statistical analyses (Balme et al. 2014; Laurence et al. 2012). This is especially germane for research of wild felids which do not lend themselves easily to study and are especially challenging subjects for undertaking applied conservation science (Ray et al. 2005; Brodie 2009). |
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