From an animal’s point of view: Motivation, fitness, and animal welfare
Behavioural ecology and the welfare of extensively farmed animals
The paper discusses whether the methods of behavioural ecology (derived from studies of wild animals) may be used to identify and suggest solutions to welfare problems in animals farmed under extensive conditions. Behavioural ecology involves looking at the interplay between an animal’s behaviour and ecology as it manoeuvres itself through the processes of survival and […]
Endangered species and a threatened discipline: behavioural ecology
Behavioural ecologists often see little connection between the current conservation crisis and the future of their discipline. This view is myopic because our abilities to investigate and interpret the adaptive significance and evolutionary histories of behaviours are increasingly being compromised in human-dominated landscapes because of species extinctions, habitat destruction, invasive species, pollution, and climate change. […]
Eighteen reasons animal behaviourists avoid involvement in conservation
We summarize 18 common misgivings that animal behaviourists raise about becoming involved in conservation. We argue that many of the supposed institutional and interdisciplinary differences break down under scrutiny; that the supposed basic-applied dichotomy is often imaginary or insufficient to prevent interchange of ideas between behaviour and conservation; and that arguments about professional lifestyle, scientific […]