To behave or not to behave, that is the question

Behavior-based management is when an animal’s behavior is encouraged, modified or manipulated in some way to achieve positive conservation outcomes.

One important dimension of behavioral interventions is their potential to conserve species and ecosystems without shooting, poisoning or trapping animals that people view as problems. This is particularly appealing in cases where the animal is endangered.

There are a growing number of contexts in which it is impractical, publicly unacceptable or just undesirable to kill some animals in order to conserve others, or to achieve other wildlife management goals.?

While avoiding poisoning or shooting animals can reduce overall harm, behavioral management may generate other forms of harm. For example, using aversive stimuli such as loud noises, harassment or mild pain to train species to avoid an area may cause distress and even trauma. In other cases, there are incidental harms to other species, such as animals killed to be used as “bait” in behavioral interventions.

Scientists who study conservation, argue that in order to make wise decisions, wildlife managers need to identify the diverse values at stake in a given situation. So they have developed a framework to help identify and discuss sometimes conflicting values in any given situation to decide on the best course of action. It is key for managers to be clear about what a proposed intervention is trying to achieve and how likely it is to meet that goal.

Ultimately, they see great value in conservation behavioral interventions, but also some challenges. Slowing down to consider the values at stake in conservation behavior interventions will help minimize harm and maximize benefits, to both humans and wildlife.

#behavioralintervention #Wildlife #Conservation