Integrating conservation social science into cervid management in Minnesota

Abstract

Wildlife managers are charged with promoting wildlife conservation while also ensuring the outflow of wildlife-associated benefits to society and minimizing costs caused by communal living with wildlife. Throughout much of the United States, cervid hunting is a salient recreational experience for many stakeholders, a critical funding source for conservation, and a tool for wildlife management. To maximize users’ benefits derived from hunting while maintaining healthy wildlife populations, managers must continually adapt management strategies to new and evolving challenges. To do so, it is essential that managers understand the factors that influence the social context of wildlife management and their effect on ecological systems. A variety of threats have emerged to the sustainability of deer hunting and cervid management more generally. These include the spread of wildlife diseases such as chronic wasting disease (CWD), decline in hunting participation, and creating more inclusive opportunities for beneficiary participation in management planning. The overarching goal is to investigate the social context of cervid management, and how anthropogenic factors influence and interact with ecological ones.