COURSE DESCRIPTION
This course is exposes graduate students to the broad field of fish and wildlife management with a focus on both the human dimensions and wild animal sciences components of the field. It serves as the anchor required course for students pursuing the Wildlife Science graduate area of emphasis within the Forestry and Natural Resources graduate majors (Ph.D., M.Sc., and MNR) at the University of Georgia. The course serves as a gateway to deeper inquiry and is intended to be formative for graduate student future course selection and research foci. As a student, you will survey the foundations of fish and wildlife management, including theories and tenets in the areas of human dimensions of fisheries and wildlife; decision making and adaptive management for fish and wildlife populations; and some key theories and core, basic principles of population, evolutionary, and behavioral ecology of animals in the context of fish and wildlife management. A large emphasis will be placed on students learning to “curate” your growing professional knowledge, accessing, critically evaluating, and synthesizing primary literature and case studies as you form and defend your own developing understandings of the field. You can expect to read primary literature regularly and develop, defend, and reflect upon your ideas in regular writing with frequent opportunity and encouragement for revision.
COURSE OBJECTIVES AND EXPECTED LEARNING OUTCOMES
As a student, upon completion of this course, you will: • Access and curate primary literature and other materials as a basis for managing information in this course and throughout your professional career. • Develop, articulate, and defend in writing their your working knowledge and ideas related to topics in fisheries and wildlife management. • Understand and critically consider key perspectives on human dimensions of fish and wildlife management. • Understand and critically consider principles of decision making, adaptive management, and research design to reduce uncertainty. • Understand and critically consider core theories and principles in wildlife population, evolutionary, and behavioral ecology as it applies to research and management. • Understand and critically consider core and emerging issues in wildlife conservation and management including key and emerging approaches to wildlife science.
ASSESSMENT
In this course, there are no numerical grades on individual assignments and there is no weighting of the relative importance of any assignment or final grade criteria. Rather, you will receive feedback on your assignments and have opportunities for revision. At the end of the semester, you will submit a written, comprehensive reflection advocating for the final grade that you fairly deserve. You, your peers, and your instructors will discuss and shape the qualities and attributes of each grade level at the beginning of the term. Your final reflection must address all elements of the course relative to those qualities and attributes.
TOPICAL OUTLINE
•Human Dimensions of Wildlife
-Attitudes, Beliefs, Norms, Values, and Emotion: The Social Psychology of Conservation
-Science, Democracy, and Power: Ethics in Conservation
•Uncertainty, Decision-Making, Adaptive Management, and Scientific Research
-Multi-criteria decision analysis
-Reducing uncertainty through management and experimentation
-Research hypotheses and the hypo-deductive method
•Population Ecology
-Life history theory and life tables
-Population Viability Analyses
-Spatially structured populations
-Management of exploited populations
-Conservation in Managed Ecosystem
-Direct Measures to Sustain, Restore, and Proliferate Species
•Evolutionary Ecology
-What is evolution and why does it matter in wildlife research and management?
-The importance of adaptation and the perils of hyperadaptationism
-Human-driven evolution in managed and unmanaged animal populations
-Conservation and management of evolutionary processes in natural systems
•Behavioral Ecology
-Behaviors at traits
-Comparative, manipulative, and optimization approaches to measure and study animal behavior
-Cognitive ethology and animal use of space and resources
-How human actions affect animal behaviors
This course is exposes graduate students to the broad field of fish and wildlife management with a focus on both the human dimensions and wild animal sciences components of the field. It serves as the anchor required course for students pursuing the Wildlife Science graduate area of emphasis within the Forestry and Natural Resources graduate majors (Ph.D., M.Sc., and MNR) at the University of Georgia. The course serves as a gateway to deeper inquiry and is intended to be formative for graduate student future course selection and research foci. As a student, you will survey the foundations of fish and wildlife management, including theories and tenets in the areas of human dimensions of fisheries and wildlife; decision making and adaptive management for fish and wildlife populations; and some key theories and core, basic principles of population, evolutionary, and behavioral ecology of animals in the context of fish and wildlife management. A large emphasis will be placed on students learning to “curate” your growing professional knowledge, accessing, critically evaluating, and synthesizing primary literature and case studies as you form and defend your own developing understandings of the field. You can expect to read primary literature regularly and develop, defend, and reflect upon your ideas in regular writing with frequent opportunity and encouragement for revision.
COURSE OBJECTIVES AND EXPECTED LEARNING OUTCOMES
As a student, upon completion of this course, you will: • Access and curate primary literature and other materials as a basis for managing information in this course and throughout your professional career. • Develop, articulate, and defend in writing their your working knowledge and ideas related to topics in fisheries and wildlife management. • Understand and critically consider key perspectives on human dimensions of fish and wildlife management. • Understand and critically consider principles of decision making, adaptive management, and research design to reduce uncertainty. • Understand and critically consider core theories and principles in wildlife population, evolutionary, and behavioral ecology as it applies to research and management. • Understand and critically consider core and emerging issues in wildlife conservation and management including key and emerging approaches to wildlife science.
ASSESSMENT
In this course, there are no numerical grades on individual assignments and there is no weighting of the relative importance of any assignment or final grade criteria. Rather, you will receive feedback on your assignments and have opportunities for revision. At the end of the semester, you will submit a written, comprehensive reflection advocating for the final grade that you fairly deserve. You, your peers, and your instructors will discuss and shape the qualities and attributes of each grade level at the beginning of the term. Your final reflection must address all elements of the course relative to those qualities and attributes.
TOPICAL OUTLINE
•Human Dimensions of Wildlife
-Attitudes, Beliefs, Norms, Values, and Emotion: The Social Psychology of Conservation
-Science, Democracy, and Power: Ethics in Conservation
•Uncertainty, Decision-Making, Adaptive Management, and Scientific Research
-Multi-criteria decision analysis
-Reducing uncertainty through management and experimentation
-Research hypotheses and the hypo-deductive method
•Population Ecology
-Life history theory and life tables
-Population Viability Analyses
-Spatially structured populations
-Management of exploited populations
-Conservation in Managed Ecosystem
-Direct Measures to Sustain, Restore, and Proliferate Species
•Evolutionary Ecology
-What is evolution and why does it matter in wildlife research and management?
-The importance of adaptation and the perils of hyperadaptationism
-Human-driven evolution in managed and unmanaged animal populations
-Conservation and management of evolutionary processes in natural systems
•Behavioral Ecology
-Behaviors at traits
-Comparative, manipulative, and optimization approaches to measure and study animal behavior
-Cognitive ethology and animal use of space and resources
-How human actions affect animal behaviors