Editorial: How Prides of Lion Researchers Are Evolving to Be Interdisciplinary

Résumé

Lions (Panthera leo) are one of the most charismatic, enigmatic, and polarizing species on the \nplanet (Macdonald et al., 2015; Albert et al., 2018; Courchamp et al., 2018). Human connections \nto lions, as functional members of ecological communities and as icons of strength and courage, \nare truly cross-cultural (Schaller, 1972). Lion symbology, for instance, appears around the world, \neven in geographic locations outside of the species range (McCall, 1973). The images of lions adorn \ncurrency, jewelry, art, clothing, corporate logos and masonry, among others, where they are used \nand traded on a daily basis (Evans, 1896; Olupona, 1993; Mwangi, 2002). People experience strong \nemotions when in the company of lions whether that be at zoos, from the relative safety of a \nsafari vehicle, or while grazing livestock on open rangelands in Africa or India (Hemson et al., \n2009; Goldman et al., 2010; Meena et al., 2014). Lions clearly command reverence and yet, as \nhumans, we have grown acutely accustomed to conflict with this species. Fears relating to insecurity \nand loss of livestock motivate swift and aggressive retaliatory responses to lions (Patterson et al., \n2004; Dickman, 2010; Millspaugh et al., 2015). Thus, lions seem capable of captivating and scaring \nhumans in equal measure. Perhaps not surprisingly then, here in the twenty-first century, lions \nare a species of immense conservation concern and one that has defied numerous efforts toward \npopulation restoration outside of inviolate protected areas. Lions have experienced precipitous \nand unabated population declines over the last 100 years causing the conservation community to \nperiodically downgrade the species conservation status (Bauer et al., 2015; Riggio et al., 2015). \nThe conservation of lions therefore presents a thorny challenge. In their contributing paper \nto this special issue, Montgomery et al. identify that human-lion conflict is a highly complex \nissue involving not only the two implied domains (i.e., humans and lions), but also characteristics \nof livestock and human culture, factors associated with wild prey populations, and abiotic \nconditions in the environment. This paper articulates that the issue of human-lion conflict is one \nthat is clearly multifaceted and multidimensional. Several calls among the scientific community \nhave demonstrated the utility of evaluating complex problems with research teams that are \nmultidisciplinary, interdisciplinary, and, hopefully at some point, transdisciplinary (White and \nWard, 2010; Rylance, 2015). Thus, the objective of this special issue is to highlight the ways in which research teams assessing human-lion conflict and those assessing lion ecology,more broadly, have been, and are evolving to be, interdisciplinary. This special \nissue features 11 papers exploring these topics across the range of \nlions from West Africa to East Africa and from South Africa to \nthe Greater Gir Landscape of India.

Citer ce document

Accès au document

Ce document est hébergé sur son dépôt institutionnel d'origine.

Auteur(s)

Statistiques

Consultations : 1

Téléchargements : 0