Seeking coexistence: human-predator conflict

Abstract

Large carnivores are captivating, awe inspiring, and ecologically critical for the health of ecosystems globally. These same animals can also be dangerous, and in some contexts they pose a genuine threat to human assets and/or safety. Human-large carnivore conflict often results in predators being killed or excluded from large areas, contributing to the significant population and geographic decline of many species. In this talk, I will briefly discuss the ecological importance of large carnivores, using marine and terrestrial examples from around the world. Most of my talk will however focus on the nature and reasons for conflict in different regions, and more broadly what steps we could take to assist human-large carnivore coexistence in our rapidly change world.

About the speaker

Dr Euan Ritchie is an Associate Professor in Wildlife Ecology and Conservation in Deakin University’s Centre for Integrative Ecology and the School of Life and Environmental Sciences. He has published over 100 scientific articles related with biodiversity conservation and wildlife ecology and management. His work is focussed on predators and their ecological roles, the ecology, conservation and management of Australian mammals, and environmental policy. He was part of a research team whose work on the dingo won the NSW Office of Environment and Heritage Eureka Prize for Environmental Research in 2013 and is one of the Australian Chief Scientist’s ‘Science Superheroes’. He is also the director of the Ecology Society of Australia's Media Working Group, Deputy Convenor of Deakin University's Science and Society Network, a committee member of the Victorian government’s Wild Dog Management Advisory Committee, and a passionate and prolific science communicator. He has written 49 articles for The Conversation, read over 770,000 times.