Big Cat Conservation
Introduction
I always knew I wanted to make a difference in this world. In 2017, I was working as an emergency medical technician on an ambulance and at the San Diego County fairgrounds. Around this same time, I became a San Diego Zoo (SDZ) member and enjoyed being surrounded by plants and animals. One day I was on the African tram ride at the SDZ Safari Park when the tour guide said there are only three Northern white rhinos left in the world. I instantly thought I misheard her because there was no way such a small number remained on the planet. I had my smartphone with me, so I looked it up and my heart sank as I read that there really were only three left in the world. I instantly wondered “why is no one doing anything?” and “how did people let this happen?”. Then it hit me. “I am someone. I can do something.” Shortly after that visit, I became an SDZ volunteer, eagerly doing everything I could to learn as much as possible and sharing it with zoo visitors. A few months into volunteering, I heard about the Advanced Inquiry Program and knew I wanted to focus on helping animals and be a voice for the truly voiceless.
I knew from the start I wanted to focus on human-wildlife conflict to provide solutions to decrease conflicts so wild populations can thrive. I followed the path of most people and conservation efforts and chose to focus on the charismatic species of big cats because, as apex predators and umbrella species, they play an essential role in our ecosystems (Colleony et al., 2017; Macdonald et al., 2015). Big cats also happen to be among some of my favorite animals. Every time I hear of a leopard being poached in Africa, I wonder if that was the last leopard. No one knows the size of the African leopard population (IUCN Leopard, 2020). I learned that there are more tigers in roadside zoos and private ownership in the United States than there are in the wild (World Wildlife Fund, 2014). With so many species facing serious threats posed by humans it is difficult to understand why no one seems to care about the damage we are causing. My goal is to raise awareness of these losses and let people know about simple actions they can do to positively impact species worldwide.
To achieve this goal, education is paramount to getting people to care about wildlife. It has been said that the “most powerful way to engage children in learning is to celebrate their voices, to invite them into the community of discovery, and to allow them to see themselves as agents of science” (Myers et al., 2009). I believe this works for people of all ages; their passion for learning begins to grow when included especially when they are invited to create their own inquiry. “Communities of science are fueled by and absolutely depend on the communication of science investigations” (Myers et al., 2009). In order to learn and have others understand and care, they must be included through discussions.
While working with Dr. Laurie Marker, founder and executive director of the Cheetah Conservation Fund, she expressed that, “We always think there is someone else who will do something, that “they” will take care of it. I realized early in my work that there is no “they”, and so I decided I would take action to save the cheetah from extinction” (Cheetah Conservation Fund, 2020). When she said that, I knew I was among the right people for me to turn my dreams into plans. Some biologists assume human attitudes and behaviors towards wildlife and I want to move away from the assumptions and focus on the actual behavior (Dickman, 2009).
I currently volunteer with the Cougar Conservancy, where I am able to raise awareness to my regional community about the threats the mountain lion populations in the state of California face, of where there are six groups that are most at risk. These populations inhabit the territories of California’s Central Coast North (Santa Cruz Mountains and East Bay), Central Coast Central, Central Coast South (Santa Monica Mountains), San Gabriel and San Bernardino Mountains, Santa Ana Mountains, and the Eastern Peninsular Range (Center for Biological Diversity, & Mountain Lion Foundation, 2019; Gustafson et al., 2018). Human-big cat conflict is becoming more common, resulting in more coexistence challenges, but I want to change that (Holland et al., 2018). My master plan focuses on big cat conservation through mitigation of human-big cat conflict by driving action to further conservation to ensure human-big cat coexistence. My four main focuses in this program were big cat conservation through research, education, intervention, and hands-on experience. For my portfolio, I focused on my projects relating to research, education, and intervention.
I obtained my Master of Arts (MA) in Biology in December 2020. I was in the Advanced Inquiry Program (AIP) with my institution being San Diego Zoo Global through Miami University and Project Dragonfly.
Nelson and Suka at the San Diego Zoo Safari Park
Research
I conducted research to gain a solid understanding of how human behavior impacts big cats to reveal opportunities for messaging and coexistence. I also focused on common strategies and methods that drive human-big cat coexistence. This research was highlighted by creating a white paper, which is an authoritative report that guides the reader through the information, on wildfire impacts on mountain lions and a synthesis paper on human-cheetah conflict.
Ashes to Policy
While interning with the Mountain Lion Foundation (MLF) during Spring 2020, I authored a white paper discussing wildfire impacts on California’s mountain lion populations and the existing policies in place protecting them. I conducted a literature review and worked with staff at the MLF to create a white paper currently being used for educational purposes and helping advance projects focusing on wildfires and mountain lions within the organization. Through this experience, I used my voice through environmental stewardship while learning that a white paper, how to create one, and how this document can aid in changing policies. Through research and inquiry, this white paper showed me the importance of gathering pieces of information from several sources and its impact not only on the general public but also on policymakers. Creating this white paper assisted my master plan by focusing on a local and regional understanding of mountain lions and the threats they face from wildfires due to human impact and how those threats impact them.
Prior to drafting my white paper, a peer of mine told me that wildfires do not impact mountain lions, mountain lions are not under any threats, and they are in fact thriving. This was my first realization that not everyone in the conservation field is as supportive towards all animal species. Knowing how little research was available, I ignored my peers comments and continued focusing on wildfire impacts on mountain lions. Less than one year later, Panthera (2020) estimated that between 300 and 600 mountain lions--up to 15% of the local population--have been seriously impacted by the California wildfires. This is even more concerning because California currently has six mountain lion populations in review to be protected by the California Endangered Species Act (Center for Biological Diversity, & Mountain Lion Foundation, 2019). As of November 2, 2020 California has had 8,834 wildfires resulting in 4,149,345 acres being burned (Cal Fire, 2020).
Human-Cheetah Conflict
I created a synthesis paper where I drew from a critical analysis of available literature, course readings, and various topics covered during the class discussions and in-person days topics to investigate the human dimensions aspect of human-cheetah conflict. I wanted to focus on one of the small big cats and the issues imposed on them by humans. I was surprised to learn that because cheetahs are diurnal, therefore seen more by humans, they are more likely to be blamed for livestock losses and other conflicts (Marker, 2003). I used this knowledge in my group project when a few colleagues and I partnered with the Cheetah Conservation Fund to help foster positive attitudes towards cheetahs among humans, specifically farmers. Knowing this information will allow me to better communicate with farmers about cheetahs and how that, just because they are seen, it does not mean they are responsible for livestock loss. Through research on human-cheetah conflicts, I was able gain a local and regional understanding of why farmers see cheetahs as a threat, and, through inquiry and environmental stewardship, I was able to create this synthesis paper. This synthesis paper relates to my master plan by focusing on conflicts between humans and cheetahs and how the cheetah population is suffering from this.
Education
I collaborated with organizations to learn how to implement educational initiatives and community conservation projects that drive human-big cat coexistence. I achieved this through an outside internship with the Society for the Preservation of Endangered Carnivores and their International Ecological Study (SPECIES). During my time there, I learned about their educational initiatives and how to encourage the public to get involved by crafting educational information to share with community members. I accomplished the education aspect of my core elements through a research summary in addition to a Piktochart and through two comics focusing on human threats posed to big cats.
Evolution of Leopards
I created a synthesis paper and infographic focusing on the evolution of leopards. I struggled to figure out what information was relevant and concise enough to include in the infographic. I wanted to include all the important information to know how leopards were in the past and how they are changing to accommodate the presence of humans, so we know how we are impacting them and learn ways in which we can reduce our impact. Due to space limitations, I had to settle with the top pieces of information, similar to a sound bite. Focusing on leopard evolution allowed me to look at how leopards came to be and how their behavior has been changing, partly due to the presence of humans. Having an infographic enables the most important information highlighted and shared with pictures and graphs to grab people’s attention. Using images has been found to be an effective means to promote conservation and environmental messaging (Osinski et al., 2019). This project taught me how big cats are changing and evolving due to human presence and how much impact we have on wildlife. I have used my skills gained from my Piktochart to create other Piktocharts for the Cheetah Conservation Fund and Cougar Conservancy. By understanding which essential pieces of information need to be shared, I am able to pair the words with attention grabbing images to share my conservation message. The inquiry involved in the formation of this synthesis paper and Piktochart enhanced my master plan by highlighting leopards and how they are evolving from human impact.
Evolution of Leopards
Palm Oil and Tigers and Campfires and Human-Wildlife Conflict
While taking the course The Art of Making Science Matter, I created two comics that focused on the negative effects caused by human-impacted environmental conflicts. The first comic focused on tigers and the negative impacts of palm oil, while the second comic focused on the dangers unattended campfires can place on mountain lions and jaguars. The hand-drawn Palm Oil and Tigers comic allowed me to use my artistic creativity while creating a story on an important and relevant topic that indirectly affects all of us. I had a learning curve creating the digital campfire comic that was accompanied with a persuasive scientific narrative. Having a narrative allowed me to go into more detail about the dangers of campfires turned wildfires without overcrowding the comic. The audience was able to decide if they wanted to just read the comic, the narrative, or both.
The Campfires and Human-Wildlife Conflict comic highlights how humans create an average of 61,375 fires every year that impacts both humans and wildlife (NIFC, 2018). It was also a challenge to discuss a serious issue in a light-hearted way to draw attention while providing hope with my conservation message. Using big cats made the subject easier to discuss because it gave a face to the reason why we should care about these issues. The comics ended with a takeaway of something humans can do to reduce or avoid creating these negative impacts. While making these comics, I gained local and regional understanding through environmental stewardship while learning the importance of grabbing my audience’s attention through art and highlighting a significant scientific issue.
I believe that through this project I was able to use my voice to effectively communicate science to the public. Groffman, et al, (2010) tells us that in order to get the public to care we must include interests of the audience to influence them and motivate them to change their values and beliefs). To relate the information to the general public, it needs to be showcased in an easy to understand format. These comics achieve this by sharing important information in a fun and easy to understand way. These two comics focused on my master plan by highlighting tigers, jaguars and mountain lions, two of threats these big cats face at the hands of humans, habitat loss and wildfires, and how it impacts them.
Tigers and Palm OilCampfires and Human-Wildlife Conflict
Campfires and Human-Wildlife Conflict
Intervention
I created an intervention by understanding and engaging in wildlife trafficking efforts and human-wildlife coexistence while volunteering with the Cougar Conservancy on their cougar conflict task force. There, I learned and understood how to implement coexistence methods and strategies in the field. This intervention was accomplished through my Instagram account and accompanying blog and website on big cat conservation and through my Earth Expedition conservation campaign group project.
Inquiry Action Project: Big Cat Conservation
Through my research I was able to compare and contrast the threats the world’s seven large-bodied cat species face and solutions to those threats. My IAP is a project where I challenged a comparative question inquiry and created an action project surrounding that inquiry. I investigated what the big cat organizations deem most important and if the different organizations agree on what the biggest threat is facing the different big cat species. My action component was an Instagram campaign to drive traffic to a blog about big cat species and the threats to their survival on the corresponding website. Each week, the posts focused on a different big cat species, from biggest to smallest—tiger, lion, leopard, jaguar, puma, cheetah, and snow leopard. Each day focused on a specific conflict impacting the species and solutions or actions to reduce the friction. During the eighth week, the Instagram campaign focused on all seven large-bodied big cat species and the similarities of the threats they face.
This information is important to know to see how the threats facing big cats are similar or dissimilar and what solutions are being done and can be done to help ensure the big cats survival. This project allowed my inquiry to provide me with local and regional understanding involving each big cat territory. My community participation and voice was driven by my environmental stewardship and engaged with the public through my Instagram account where I was able to educate the public and engage in conversations. I used this information to increase solutions and decrease conflicts between humans and big cats in the wild by providing actions people can take and providing information on organizations that can help them with conflicts to promote coexistence. This project relates to my master plan by focusing on threats big cats face at the hands of humans and providing coexistence measures or information on actions to promote coexistence.
You can view the Big Cat Conservation website and Instagram page.
Big Cat Conservation Paper
Creating Online Learning Materials Regarding Human-Cheetah Conflict for the Cheetah Conservation Fund
Unfortunately, due to COVID-19, my Earth Expedition trip to conduct field research at the Cheetah Conservation Fund (CCF) with Dr. Laurie Marker, in Namibia, was cancelled. However, colleagues and I used the time to create a conservation campaign to support their efforts. Together we created several educational tools to help students learn the information found within chapter 13 of CCF’s newest textbook Cheetahs: Biology and Conservation. My role specifically was to create an infographic discussing the similarities and differences between leopards and cheetahs, a trivia game about human-wildlife conflict in Namibia, and a pledge for students to take to help save cheetahs.
Together we created a report and a PowerPoint presentation to discuss all of our educational elements and why we chose to make something in an online format using interactive and engaging components. Through our investigations we learned how to best create and implement educational materials in an online format while using community participation and voice. Our local and regional understanding allowed us to become environmental stewards to work with our global community. I also learned how to best communicate with others during a global pandemic where everyone is struggling with different challenges. We worked together to arrive at our end goal successfully. When dealing with people in different time zones, it is important to start early and keep in mind their schedules. By separating the work it allowed us to each work on our strengths and come together to piece it all together and assist each other with our weaknesses, my group and I ensured everything was pieced together smoothly prior to submitting it for the course and our partner. This project relates to my master plan by focusing on human-cheetah conflicts and educating students to coexist with cheetahs while also working with a big cat organization, CCF, to obtain goals by both myself and the organization.
Creating Online Learning Materials Regarding Human-Cheetah Conflict for the Cheetah Conservation Fund
Conclusion
“We shape ourselves through the questions we ask” and we must be willing to ask all questions and include everyone in the process of finding the answer (Myers et al., N.D.). I was able to thrive in an environment where there were no right or wrong answers. “Inquiry doesn’t require you to be an expert, although people often become experts because of inquiries” (Myers et al., N.D.). I entered this program with a background in fire protection administration and technology with the knowledge of how to fight different types of fires. I was nervous about being around peers who knew they wanted to study biology for as long as they could remember. I soon realized that I could investigate all the questions I had and in more detail than a simple “why.” I was able to master how to craft a hypothesis, conduct different types of research, gather and collect data, share my findings so anyone understands it and how to create actions that inspire others to change their own actions. During my time in this program, I learned so much about how to make inquiries, how to involve my community, how to use my voice to raise awareness, and how to understand conflicts locally and globally and how I can positively impact them. Jane Goodall said, “what you do makes a difference, and you have to decide what kind of difference you want to make.” I decided I want to make a difference by protecting wildlife and raising awareness of conservation efforts worldwide, focusing on big cats while becoming a voice for the voiceless.
References
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Cal Fire. (2020). Incidents overview. https://www.fire.ca.gov/incidents/
Center for Biological Diversity, & Mountain Lion Foundation. (2019, June 26). A petition to list the southern California/ central coast evolutionary significant unit (ESU) of mountain lions as threatened under the California endangered species act (CESA). https://s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com/s3-wagtail.biolgicaldiversity.org/documents/CESA_petition_-_Southern_California_Central_Coast_Mountain_Lions.pdf
Cheetah Conservation Fund. (2020) Who We Are: Dr. Laurie Marker. https://cheetah.org/about/who-we-are/dr-laurie-marker/-
Colleony, A., Clayton, S., Couvet, D., Saint Jalme, M., & Prevot, A.-C. (2017). Human preferences for species conservation: Animal charisma trumps endangered status. Biological Conservation, 206, 263-269
Dickman, A.J. (2010). Complexities of conflict: The importance of considering social factors for effectively resolving human-wildlife conflict. The Zoological Society of London., Animal Conservation, 459-466. doi:10.1111/j.1469-1795.2010.00368.x
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Marker, L. (2003). Reducing conflicts between Namibian farmers and cheetahs. International Wildlife Management Congress,184-187. file:///C:/Users/reedt/Downloads/reducing-conflicts-between-namibian-farmers-and-cheetahs (1).pdf.
Myers, C., Myers, L.B., & Hudson, R. (2009). Science is not a spectator sport: Three principles from 15 years of Project Dragonfly. In R. Yager (Ed.), Inquiry: The key to exemplary science (pp. 29-40). Arlington, Virginia: NSTA Press.
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Osinski, B. L., Getson, J. M., Bentlage, B., Avery, G., Glas, Z., Esman, L. A., Williams, R. N., & Prokopy, L. S. (2019). What’s the draw?: illustrating the impacts of cartoons versus photographs on attitudes and behavioral intentions for wildlife conservation. Human Dimensions of Wildlife, 24(3), 231.
Panthera. (2020, October 28). 300 to 600 mountain lions killed, injured or negatively impacted by 2020 California wildfires estimates panthera, global wild cat conservation organization. https://www.panthera.org/300-600-mountain-lions-killed- injured-or-negatively-impacted-2020-california-wildfires-estimates
World Wildlife Fund. (2014, July 29). More tigers in American backyards than in the wild. https://www.worldwildlife.org/stories/more-tigers-in-american-backyards-than-in-the-wild