What do you think?
- How has public opinion influenced scientific research?
- Do you think it's wrong to anthropomorphize wildlife?
- How do we advance our ideals – for hunting or for animal welfare – if they differ from those who have, for so long, been denied the right to self-determination?
- If national or international decisions are increasingly made at the local or Indigenous territorial level, how can the broader population have a say? And how should the science factor into decisions?
- What happens when different scientific values and models clash? Can we disagree without being disagreeable? How do we find a way forward?
- Is it possible to achieve the scientifically-rigorous goals we must meet for biodiversity and meaningfully advance truth and reconciliation? And is it possible to accomplish both of those goals and heal the urban-rural divide that threatens our very democracy?
Task
Get together in small groups and answer the following:
- How do we balance biodiversity and the economy, with the rights and values of different cultures? What should we do when different cultural values clash? How should we reconcile science and economics, ethics and resources, minority and majority will?
Terms & Concepts
- Anthropomorphism
- Time Immemorial
- Colonialism
- Traditional Knowledge
- Self Determination
- Natural Inheritance
- Traditional Territories
- Truth and Reconciliation
- Social Justice
This story in the media
How lynx and wolf reintroductions to Britain could be shaped by preconceptions and psychology
Bias: Centre
Source: The Conversation
File Type: Essay
Overview: How lynx...
Killing owls to save owls: the US wildlife plan that sparked an ‘ethical dilemma’
Bias: Centre
Source: The Guardian
File Type: Essay
Overview: Killing owls...
‘We had to make a choice’: Wildlife Haven no longer treating certain species
Bias: none
Source: CTV News
File Type: Article
Overview: \'We had...
Referenced Resources
- Three Poems - Angela Waldie
- Research funding and awards
- Federal Funding Sources
- A Way Forward with Wolves
- It’s time we stopped anthropomorphising animals
- Anthropomorphism: how much humans and animals share is still contested
- How to Coexist with Predators
- Living With Predators: A Farmer's Guide
- Landscape of fear and human-predator coexistence: Applying spatial predator-prey interaction theory to understand and reduce carnivore-livestock conflict
- Academia can help humans and large carnivores coexist
- What's in a Name?—Consequences of Naming Non-Human Animals
- Rethink the naming of wild animals
- Sapient Elephants, Musical Dogs, and Mercenary Cats: 15 Stories Featuring Anthropomorphic Animals
- When kids' books feature animals with human traits
- What is anthropomorphism, and why should you be careful using the term?
- A baby otter is grieving for its dead mother after she was run over
- For Mark Miller, the highway to TV success runs through Canada
- Anthropomorphism: What is it and can it benefit conservation?
- The Importance of Human Emotions for Wildlife Conservation
- The Connection Between Animal and Human Emotions
- The Potential for Anthropomorphism in Communicating Science: Inspiration from Japan
- Seeing Human
- Human beings have a deep-seated tendency to humanize everything around them. Is it delusion—or a natural and healthy response to loneliness?
- Wolves a sort of serial killers
- Smoking a pack may be best wolf control measure, research says
- Killing Wolves: A Hunter-Led War Against Science And Wildlife
- Bear hunting ban declared by 10 B.C. First Nations
- Conservation of polar bears in Canada
- Climate change: Government of Canada
- Climate change: Polar bears could be lost by 2100
- Nature Canada Supports Minister’s Decision to List Polar Bear Under Species At Risk Act
- The Economics of Polar Bear Trophy Hunting in Canada
- Guided Hunting in Canada
- Inuit lives must be protected over polar bears, Nunavut community says
- Why Does Canada Still Allow Hunters to Kill Polar Bears for Their Fur?
- Isolated Canada insists on being a polar bear bad guy: Walkom
- In Search of Nanuq: The Inuit Culture of Polar Bear Hunting
- More bears, less bears: Inuit and scientific perceptions of polar bear populations on the west coast of Hudson Bay
- The sea otter rescue plan that worked too well
- Northern B.C. First Nations call for reversal of grizzly bear hunting ban
- How one B.C. group, First Nations bought out trophy hunters
- Coastal First Nations
- Coastal First Nations Vow ‘Good Fight’ to Stop Grizzly Hunt
- In B.C., emotion is trumping science-based wildlife management
- The Myth of Science-Based Wildlife Management
- When Science-Based Management Isn't
- B.C. turns its back on science with changes to wildlife management