By: Francisco J. Santiago-Ávila, PhD ( PAN Works, Project Coyote and The Rewilding Institute), Liv Baker, PhD ( PAN Works & Animal Behaviour and Conservation, Hunter College, CUNY), Kristin L. Stewart, JD, PhD ( PAN Works & Anthrozoology, Canisius College), and William S. …

In February of 2019, Lysanne Snijders (Behavioral Ecology, Wageningen University) and Tanja Straka (Human Dimensions, Technische Universität Berlin) had a brilliant idea. They created an editorial column on Medium to explore the intersections of ethics and human-wildlife interaction. …

Protecting a taxon with a bad reputation The world has changed tremendously in the last few months and bats are in the spotlights. It is still difficult to assess how people’s views on bats will change on the long-term, but a decrease in appreciation and increase in persecution is currently clearly notable. Bat conservationists around the world…

Sitting with grief in a world of wounds In conservation, often a choice has to be made for the lesser of two evils. How can conservationists cope with such situations of seemingly inevitable loss? …

The role of individual researchers For this exploration, we are experimenting with a different format: a personal contribution about a relevant and (somewhat) controversial topic in conservation. This exploration is a personal account of the role that climate change plays in the daily life of researcher Dr Yann Gager. Yann explains to us what individual…

A green versus green dilemma The development of wind turbines in Germany is a controversial topic. While wind turbines promise to contribute to climate conservation goals in this century, the ongoing negative impact of wind turbines on airborne wildlife such as bats and birds is undeniable. Hence, the situation around wind turbines is labelled by…

A story of ethics, science and policy The case study In this exploration, we wanted to share perspectives on the controversial case of cats in Australia, also by some called the ‘war against cats’. In 2015, the Australian Government launched the threatened species strategy to kill 2 Mio cats in Australia by 2020 with the aim to protect endemic wildlife…

The return of the ‘Beast’? Welcome to our third exploration. Here we explore ‘wicked’ conservation conflicts by inviting stakeholders and experts to share their perspective with us. The case study We are focusing on a hot topic in Europe: the return of the wolves. While there have been heated debates and new regulations in Germany, we wondered: (1)…

Perspectives from people on site In our first blog post, we explored the scenario ‘Killing hyenas to save horses’ in Namibia. We asked three experts in their field (human dimensions, wildlife biology and ethics) to share their perspective. An important suggestion we received after posting this blog article, was to also invite people on site…