$$News and Reports$$

May. 25, 2016
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The behavior of an animal is its first line of defense against a changing environment, and the way an animal behaves can rescue it from anthropogenic (man-made) dangers or doom it to extinction. This makes the discipline of behavioral ecology an important tool in the hands of conservation biologists and practitioners. A new book, Conservation Behavior: Applying Behavioral Ecology to Wildlife Conservation and Management, edited by Dr. Oded Berger-Tal and Prof. David Saltz from BGU's Marco and Louise Mitrani Department of Desert Ecology  and published by Cambridge University Press, thoroughly explores the relatively new field that aims to take behavioral ecology theories and methodologies and apply them to the conservation and management of species and habitats.

The book offers an in-depth, logical framework that identifies three vital areas for understanding conservation behavior: anthropogenic threats to wildlife, conservation and management protocols, and indicators of anthropogenic threats. Each chapter describes the state of the art and identifies novel directions for needed research along the seam between conservation and animal behavior.

BGU is one of the world’s leading institutes in this field offering conservation behavior and other related courses as part of the syllabus of its new Ecology, Conservation and Management graduate program. Due to its structured approach the book provides a good basis for graduate level courses in this new field.