Course Description
Students will survey the foundations of fisheries and wildlife management, including theories and tenets in the areas of human dimensions of wildlife and fisheries management; population, behavioral, and evolutionary ecology; and adaptive management and decision-making. Students will critically evaluate primary literature and case studies in wildlife management.
Athena Title
Fish and Wildlife Management
Semester Course Offered
Offered fall
Grading System
A - F (Traditional)
Course Objectives
Upon completion of this course, students will understand: •Key concepts and theories that are applied in human dimensions research and practice. •Principles of adaptive management and decision-making for wildlife. •Core and emerging issues in wildlife conservation and management. •Core theories and principles in wildlife population, evolutionary, and behavioral ecology as it applies to research and management. •Key approaches to wildlife population management. •The role of scale and the spatial nature of wildlife research and management.
Topical Outline
•Human Dimensions of Wildlife -Attitudes, Beliefs, Norms, Values, and Emotion: The Social Psychology of Conservation -Science, Democracy, and Power: Ethics in Conservation •Research, Adaptive Management, and Decision-Making -Multi-criteria decision analysis -Reducing uncertainty through management and experimentation -Research hypotheses and the hypo-deductive method •Population Ecology -Life history theory and matrix population models -Spatially structured populations -Management of exploited populations -Conservation in Managed Ecosystem -Direct Measures to Conserve and Proliferate Species •Evolutionary and Behavioral Ecology -What is evolution and why does it matter in wildlife research and management? -The importance of adaptation and the perils of hyperadaptationism •Behavioral Ecology -Behaviors at traits and how we study and measure animal behavior -How human actions affect animal behaviors
Syllabus
Public CV