Behavior and conservation, conservation and behavior

- Links between behavior and conservation are threefold.
- Response to human activities, in ex situ conservation, and behavioral fixes to drivers of change.
- Only in the third category does animal behavior have a chance of really solving conservation problems.

Links between animal behavior and anthropogenically driven environmental change fall into three separate categories: descriptions of changes in behavior in response to human activities, animal behavior research that may have use in captive breeding and reintroduction programs, and behavioral solutions to the major concerns of conservation practitioners. Only within the context of the third category does animal behavior have a chance of contributing significantly to solving conservation problems. If animal behaviorists can devise practical solutions to habitat fragmentation, exploitation, pollution, invasive species or climate change, they will have opportunities to make real contributions to conservation.