Wildlife conservation

• For conservation scientists like me, it also underscored that Americans have a fraught relationship with large carnivores like wolves, bears and mountain lions.
• Major state and federal government efforts are underway to reintroduce grizzly bears to the Northern Cascades and gray wolves to Colorado.
• More human development and, in some cases, expanding carnivore populations have led to more encounters between humans and carnivores.

From conflict to coexistence

• In 2021 alone, the U.S. Department of Agriculture Wildlife Services euthanized nearly 70,000 bears, wolves, mountain lions, bobcats, coyotes and foxes.
• Thousands of animals die every year in wildlife killing contests that often target carnivores such as coyotes and bobcats.
• These contests are legal in more than 40 U.S. states – under the guise that they help with wildlife management and protect livestock.
• But research has found that extensive carnivore killing to reduce levels of conflict is largely ineffective, ethically tenuous, and it undermines their conservation.
• And mitigating conflict as a policy objective is a short-term and partial solution that doesn’t enable long-term coexistence.

Policy for enabling coexistence

• A federal policy like the one my colleagues and I propose that sets goals for sharing spaces with carnivores could allow for coexistence between people and carnivores while also recognizing local priorities.
• While much of wildlife management takes place at the state level, having a federal policy framework could provide resources and incentives for states and communities to adopt specific coexistence strategies relevant to the carnivores in their area.
• Large-scale policy goals may include lowering conflicts, increasing human tolerance to risks and fostering self-sustaining carnivore populations.
• Some states are also taking incremental steps toward coexistence.

A broader coexistence framework

• These local and state-level successes are encouraging, but not enough to address the issue at a broader, national scale.
• A federal coexistence policy could harness the insights from these individual communities’ coexistence efforts and encourage other communities to adopt these techniques.
• For example, members of universities, businesses, tribes, government and nongovernmental organizations and the public could come together at regional coexistence workshops to showcase their coexistence actions, receive support for new ideas and share tools and best practices.
• There are promising signs that the federal government and some states are starting to pay more attention to coexistence with carnivores.

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• b'TORONTO, May 6, 2021 /CNW/ - Canadians are calling on their government to help stop the global commercial wildlife trade through a House of Commons e-petition started by the global charity World Animal Protection.
• "Seventy-five per cent of new and emerging infectious diseases affecting human health over the past decade originated from animals, principally from wildlife, including SARS and Ebola.
• Canadian demand for wild animals and wildlife products, fuels this cruel trade, which drives pandemic risk.
• "Curbing the wildlife trade will also prevent animal suffering, species extinction and biodiversity loss.

• Over 50,000 Canadians have signed a petition asking Canada to support the closure of wildlife markets and commit to stopping the global commercial wildlife trade.
• "We're calling on Canada and other G20 countries to curb the global wildlife trade to prevent cruelty, extinction and future pandemics."
• A 2020 poll conducted by Northstar Research Partners found 89% of Canadians believe the wildlife trade threatens human health and can cause pandemics, 75% support banning wildlife markets and 70% support banning the commercial wildlife trade.
• "Governments and those involved in the wildlife trade must stop placing short term profit over the health and welfare of animals, people and the environment," added Matlow.