Some people study wild animals in order to understand how best to conserve a species. Others study the people who have to manage finite resources and competing political agendas to conserve wildlife populations. Dr. Victoria Lukasik has done both and has a vast wealth of experience for someone so young. Originally from Quebec, Victoria is now based in Calgary, where she’s studied apex predators in Canada’s Rocky Mountains. For her PhD, she researched how exactly wildlife management decisions are made and the biodiversity consequences of these choices.
After a day working in Alberta’s foothills, Victoria took the time to join us in conversation.
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What do you think?
- Can we save the caribou? Can we afford not to?
- Do subspecies really matter? Do they provide unique benefits to unique ecosystems or can we ill afford to care about subspecies when entire species are endangered?
- What might be the consequence of losing a subspecies or an entire species?
- Will we only take action if it’s charismatic megafauna that’s threatened?
- How do we make the right decisions? Do we even have enough information to make informed choices?
- Are we dedicating too many resources, or too few, when it comes to managing wildlife populations or individual animals?