Incorporating Human Beliefs and Behaviors into Wildlife Ecology

Like much of the global biosphere, wildlife species have experienced rapid declines during the Anthropocene. Wildlife ecologists have responded to these crises by developing a range of technologies, techniques, and large datasets, which together have revolutionized the field, provided novel insights into the movements and behaviors of animals, and identified new risks and impacts to wildlife in a human-dominated world. While these advances have been vitally important, wildlife ecology has been slower to recognize and incorporate humans themselves into its new research domains. The chapters of this dissertation explore methods for better incorporating human behaviors, beliefs, actions, and infrastructure into the theories and approaches in wildlife ecology that have flourished in the last two decades. The research presented here demonstrates the importance of linking human beliefs and behaviors to wildlife ecology both by presenting novel findings and by showing the opportunities missed when narrow approaches are applied to complex socio-ecological problems.In Chapter 1, I provide a general introduction on the theories underlying this research, contextualize the research questions in light of the loss and recovery of large predators, and describe the research site where I collected much of the data for this dissertation. In Chapter 2, I apply the methods of movement ecology to some of the first fine-scale telemetry data collected on rifle hunters. I draw conclusions about their individual, site-level, and regional-level hunting behaviors and discuss the broad implications of these findings for hunting management. In Chapter 3, I examine livestock-predator conflict using approaches from both ecology and the social sciences. I describe a form of selection bias that is likely widespread but unreported due to the omission of social data from ecological models of conflict, and I offer guidelines for combining and translating ecological and social research on conflict. In Chapter 4, I explore the ecological impacts of one of the most globally widespread human constructions, the fence. I show for the first time the potential extent of fencing at large scales and discuss the wide variety of ecological effects of fences for both humans and ecosystems. I further highlight biases and gaps in fence research that have thus far limited a complete understanding of the environmental effects of these features. In Chapter 5, I conclude by making recommendations regarding how research might better incorporate human perceptions, decisions, and actions into ecology

EMOTICONS: Breaking down e-mail facilitated communication

The use of E-Mail expedites the rapid transfer of facts, data and reports, making the Information Super Highway an efficient communicative process. However, E-Mail is not historically well suited for personal, quality, one-on-one communication. The purpose of this article is to discuss devices, techniques and strategies to enhance the personal nature of E-Mail transfers

Small Shop Dynamics: Time and Technology

Nearly invisible in the manufacturing industry hierarchy are those small manufacturers with fewer than 50 employees. These firms, labeled Small Shops, constitute a large percentage of manufacturers. This study focuses on the impact of technological innovation and time relative to the re-emergence of small shops as a competitive entity in the industrial hierarchy

Cultural and Religious Identities in an Era of Information and Communications Globalization

The rapid advances in information and communication technologies coupled with the dominant overarching Neo-liberal/capitalist ideological underpinnings of the dominant Western powers have generated a momentum towards a homogeneous global village. The impact of which has been to expand World conflict and propelled many nations towards losing their national identity and traditions. This article discusses the various impacts from IT globalization and calls for a new global communication awareness

e-Commerce: How the times have changed

The advent cf E-Commerce and the information age are catalyzing fundamental decision making processes as well as their management. In this article the authors develop a functional definition of information which forms the resource base in evolving decision making activities where uncertainty and short time horizons tend to predominate. The article also makes the case that modem managers will need to be entrepreneurial

Understanding Web Page Anatomy

The rapid evolution of information technology over the past several decades has opened many new and unique modes of communication. Clearly, the web is one such technology. However, it is quite possible that a fascination with the technology per se can hinder participants from one of its main functions—effective communication. The following essay explores a return to the basics of designing an effective web-based communication strategy. The key components of this strategy are: 1) consistent look and feel, 2) conceptual consistency, and 3) positive attention

The Nintendo generation comes of age: The technologist of the future

While many products and inventions have revolutionized the computer world, none has had a greater impact than the Nintendo. The Nintendo game was developed for the children of the Babyboom generation. Dubbed the Nintendo generation, these children have grown up in a digital world that they could control. This Nintendo generation have pushed the technological limits because they didn\u27t know any better. Now, this generation has locked onto the World Wide Web as their playground, displacing the previous analog generation