Close Encounters: Humans, Wildlife, And Complex Interactions

Wildlife management is, in many ways, an attempt to regulate the co-existence of people and wildlife “across diminishing wildlands.” As urbanization has spread and human populations have grown, there has simultaneously been a growing gap between environmental problems and our ability to solve them. While conservationists struggle to keep up with various challenges facing animals and their habitats, there is pressure to keep human interests in mind, and to keep people engaged with conservation plans by including them in the process. Analyzing and “solving” human-wildlife encounters and dynamics is recognized as “problematic at various levels” because there are so many gaps in our knowledge. Researchers are constantly trying to figure out how to facilitate and encourage environmentally responsible behavior.

In this study, researchers wanted tried to “recognize and integrate social and ecological parameters of human–wildlife encounters,” while providing a critical analysis of the existing behavior models and theories related to human-wildlife dynamics. They presented a model of their own called the “Integrated Adaptive Behavior Model of human–wildlife encounters.” This model combines thought from various behavioral sciences, in order to fully understand the complexity of human-wildlife encounters. According to the researchers, these encounters need to be managed as their own “social-ecological systems,” and social scientists cannot continue “to ignore the field of complexity sciences as an emerging and crucial part of wildlife sciences.” They recognize, however, that developing the Integrative Adaptive Behavior Model is just a first step towards structurally managing human-wildlife encounters. Providing the model as a way of understanding behavior is one thing, but applying the model will require systems-level thinking.

For animal advocates, the above may seem complicated, but the underlying principles are anything but. Recognizing the complexity and interconnectedness of human-wildlife encounters is a crucial step in understanding how to manage them. For conservationists, understanding how to manage the human side of things will further their attempts to protect wildlife in a constantly evolving world.