Do we need a new model of scientific stewardship and wildlife conservation management in North America? University of Calgary professor and founder of the Canid Conservation Science Lab Dr. Shelley Alexander says yes. Shelley is one of the world’s foremost experts on canids, having spent her life leading field-based and geospatial studies of large carnivore ecology, with a focus on wolves and coyotes. In 2005, she launched the Calgary Coyote Project, studying urban and rural coyote ecology and human-coyote conflicts across Canada. Her efforts led to a citizen-science project, Living with Coyotes, that was the first of its kind in Canada. She helped lead the research that identified a new canid subspecies of wolves on Canada’s west coast, collaborated on the Swift Fox Critical Habitat Project and worked to help save the endangered Painted Dog in Zimbabwe. Shelley is a member of the board of directors of the Society for Conservation Biology, North American Section, and the Institute for Compassionate Conservation.
We caught up with Shelley in the urban wildland that is Calgary’s Nose Hill Park to better understand how humans can coexist with wildlife and why she believes science needs to embrace compassionate conservation.
What do you think?
- What did you learn from Shelley’s story?
- If science provides an answer, is that sufficient information to make the right decision? Or do we need to weigh science alongside economics, ethics and cultural values?
- Should science do a better job of considering the welfare of individual animals and the value sets of individual communities?
- In a biodiversity crisis, should we always focus on the bigger picture – managing entire populations of wildlife?
- Do we need places where the traditional North American Model of Wildlife Management drives decisions and other spaces where compassionate conservation determines the outcomes?
- Do you believe that balancing people and nature comes down to co-existence? Or do you think we need to make hard trade-offs to find a solution that works?
More on Shelley
Watch an interview on Shelley’s work with coyotes: Questioning Coyote Conversations
Listen to a podcast with Shelley:Urban Coyotes and pet safety + the new Sleep Rover Doggie Hotel & Daycare
Watch Shelley talk about her work at University of Calgary: Human and coyote conflict: Urban vs Rural
Favourite Book: The Joy of Living by Yongey Mingur Rinpoche
