november 5, 2021
Life finds a way: How can humans and wildlife coexist in an increasingly developed world?
Dr. Christine Wilkinson
Postdoctoral scholar, University of California-Berkeley
Abstract
Carnivores and other wildlife co-occur with people in even the most pristine landscapes, and interactions between people and carnivores can shape ecology and human livelihoods at many scales. Integrating local community perspectives and histories with data on ecology and animal behavior can help us to understand how humans and carnivores can share landscapes over the long term despite increasing human development and activity. We demonstrate a case study on human-carnivore interactions and carnivore movement in Nakuru County, Kenya, and explore how these ideas can be applicable to Bay Area human-carnivore relationships.
Biosketch
Dr. Christine Wilkinson is a conservation biologist and a postdoctoral scholar at the University of California, Berkeley. Her research interests include human-wildlife conflict, carnivore movement ecology, multidisciplinary mapping, and using participatory methods for more effective and inclusive conservation outcomes. She has spent the last decade working in conservation biology and natural resource management around the USA and in Kenya, Tanzania, and Uganda, and has also served in various capacities as an informal educator. For her current research, she is studying the socioecological drivers of urban carnivore movement and conflict in the Bay Area, California. She is also using remote sensing and GIS analyses in conjunction with participatory mapping to understand landscape permeability for carnivores, livestock predation and perceived human-hyena conflict risk, and the intersection between human and carnivore resource needs in and around Lake Nakuru National Park, Kenya.