WILD 7970

Instructor: Dr. Michael S. Mitchell

347 Funchess Hall

phone: 844-9250

e-mail:

office hours: 9:00-10:30 am, Tuesdays and Thursdays

GENERAL INFORMATION

I admit it, I think predators (wolves, great white sharks, assassin bugs, whatever) are exceptionally cool. Their behavior, life histories, and ecology are fascinating, their conservation and management are really challenging. These days, predators (particularly big ones) receive unprecedented recognition among both scientists and lay people for their ecological roles and they are often species targeted for conservation action. On the flip side of the coin, some predators can cause appreciable harm to people or their interests; human reactions in these cases range from damage control to vilification and persecution. Few debates are more polarized than trying to define appropriate conservation and management strategies for predators. Interestingly, for all their popularity or notoriety in our culture, we really know very little about them. In many ways, we simply just don’t understand why predators (as individuals, groups, populations, or species) do what they do, which makes it awfully hard to know how to effectively conserve them, or mitigate conflicts with them.

There’s a fair and growing body of literature out there that has the potential to provide insights into the ecology of predators. There is also no shortage of conservation and management approaches to predators, some with accompanying literature. But how well do these 2 domains intersect? What do we really know about predators? Can we predict what they will do, how they will behave, how their populations will change, what their effects on prey populations will be? Do we understand them well enough to devise effective conservation and management strategies? In other words, which strategies work, which do not, which are ecologically justified, which are not? The purpose of this course will be to try to answer as many of these questions as we can, based on readings and discussion of current primary literature.

COURSE OBJECTIVES

1. Develop broad expertise in historical and current thinking on the ecology and conservation of predators.

2. Critically evaluate scientific work and conservation and management practices with respect to predators.

3. Further develop communication skills through oral and written communication.

TEXT

We will use no specific textbook for this course. Readings from the primary literature will be selected for each class meeting as the semester proceeds.

COURSE FORMAT

Class meetings will consist of discussion of assigned readings. All participants must read all assigned readings prior to class. Students will be assigned responsibilities for leading at least 1 discussion session, which includes 1) selecting readings and ensuring their availability to other participants, and 2) facilitating and moderating discussion of assigned materials. Each student will write a term paper synthesizing available literature on a topic relevant to the course. The capstone of the course will be an organized debate over current issues in predator conservation and management.

GRADING

There will be no examinations. Grades will be assigned on a 10-point scale (e.g. 90-100=A, 80-89=B, etc.) and calculated in the following way:

Discussion leadership                                               25 points

Discussion participation (when not leading)           20 points

Term Paper                                                                 35 points

Debate participation                                                  20 points

All graded items (e.g. reading selections, term papers) must be turned in on time for full credit. Exceptions will be granted only under the most stringent conditions, requiring official medical or university documentation. In the event of an unavoidable conflict with class attendance or submission of assignments, make every attempt to notify me prior to class meetings or due dates.

READINGS AND DISCUSSIONS

At the first class meeting, each student will be assigned responsibility for leading a discussion on a particular topic. Depending upon the number of students enrolled, some students may lead more than 1 discussion, or 2 students may be allowed to team up on a single discussion. In either case, grading will reflect the effort put forth by each student (i.e. a student that leads more than 1 discussion will receive more consideration in the assignment of points; on the flipside, more will be expected of students cooperating to lead a discussion in order to achieve the same number of points). Students will be expected to meet with me at least 2 weeks in advance of their scheduled discussion time in order to discuss possible readings. Students will then be responsible for searching the literature to find a concise number of readings that comprehensively cover central ideas of the topic, present data where the ideas were tested, present contrasting views of the topic, and that discuss any conservation implications (if applicable). I must approve the final readings list for each discussion. Once the reading list is approved, the student leader(s) for each discussion must provide photocopies of each paper to my secretary, Judy Christian (302 Funchess Hall, 4-4796) at least 1 week prior to the scheduled discussion. Papers will then be scanned and posted on the web page below for downloading by all class participants.

http://www.forestry.auburn.edu/mitchell/WILD7970/readings.html

During class meetings, discussion leaders are primarily responsible for ensuring that the material is clearly understood by all discussion participants, and are encouraged to use creative and innovative approaches to accomplish this. Discussion leadership will be evaluated on the relevance, quality, comprehensiveness, and currency of selected papers, on the organization and cohesiveness of discussion presentation, and on the facilitation and moderation of constructive dialogue among class participants.

TERM PAPER

Students will be required to write a term paper on some subject having to do with predator ecology, conservation, or management. Students will be free to choose a subject but I must approve the subject. Papers must focus on detailed synthesis of available literature on a given topic, which means going beyond a thorough literature review in order to discern emerging patterns, to identify new ideas and needed information, and to critically evaluate different contending findings and viewpoints without bias. Papers must focus on current ecological concepts or conservation issues (i.e. papers on natural history will not be acceptable).

There is a time schedule for this paper to which students must adhere. A change in subject part way through the semester will not result in a penalty, provided the schedule is still observed; subject changes must be discussed with me. The term paper schedule will be determined during the first week of class. Here are the required stages:

Subject choice: includes a rough outline of the paper. The rough outline need only list the major points to be covered. At this time if a student selects a topic on which there is so little or so much information that the student might have trouble, we will discuss taking a subtopic, another topic, etc. I do not want this paper to take up the entire semester-- subject and outline must be turned in on time.

Detailed outline: includes most references. Formal outline form or free-form outline are fine. Outlines must be typed.

Rough draft: This draft must be in the correct format (see below) and it must be typed. It must be complete. I recommend that it be roughly 9 pages long.

Final draft: The final draft of the term paper must be typed or I will not read it and no credit will be assigned. The final draft is to be written in the format of a paper to be submitted to a top-tier research journal (e.g. Ecology, The Journal of Wildlife Management, Conservation Biology). Although most papers submitted to these journals deal with original research, some library research and some review papers are also published. Student’s papers will be along these latter subject lines, probably, and therefore will be unlikely to fit into the regular introduction, methods, results, discussion format. All other aspects of format must be followed. Please note that there is so much more to format than simply the major headings for a paper. Such things include how literature is cited, whether numbers are used as numerals or written out, where figures and tables are located, where you put your name and address, and many more things are also part of format. I recommend students read seriously the book by Day (1994, How to Write and Publish a Scientific Paper, Oryx Press, Phoenix, AZ). Day gives many good ideas on how to write a scientific paper. The final draft of the term paper is limited to 7 double-spaced typed pages of text (citations, figures and tables do not count as part of the seven pages). I will stop reading at the bottom of page 7 and skip to the citations from there. Papers will be graded equally on content and presentation. Content includes subject matter, handling of the subject matter (depth, comprehensiveness), coverage of the pertinent literature, and so forth. Presentation includes grammar (very important), conciseness and format.

DEBATE

Students will each participate in a formal debate, with the number of debates depending on the number of students enrolled in the course. The debate(s) will take place at the end of the semester and will be public (hopefully scheduled during a standard seminar period). The topic(s) of the debate(s) will be selected by the class during the course of the semester, in time to allow for at several weeks of preparation. For each debate, students will be organized into 2 debate teams assigned opposing positions that define alternative viewpoints of the topic in question (it will not be necessary for members of a team to agree with their team’s position). During the debate, each team will have 15 minutes to present an opening argument, 10 minutes to rebut the opposing team’s opening argument, and 5 minutes to present a closing argument. After the debate, the audience of the debate will have a chance to ask questions and comment on both the conduct of the debate and the coverage of the topic by both teams. Student grades for the debate will be based on team performance, including quality of arguments, thoroughness of documentation, and equal participation of all team members. Each team will be required to submit a brief literature review for their position.

CLASS ATTENDANCE

This is a graduate course. Attendance will not be taken, because I assume all students will attend every class meeting, unless emergencies or their research preclude it. Obviously, missing discussions will reduce points assigned for discussion participation.

ACADEMIC HONESTY

Students should be familiar with the Student Academic Honesty Code that is published in the latest version of the Tiger Cub, each will be expected to strictly adhere to this code. Any violations of this code will be brought before the Academic Honesty Committee.

STUDENTS WITH DISABILITIES

Any student having any type of disability should notify me of such after the first class meeting. I will do everything I can to accommodate any special requirements or needs during the conduct of the course.

OTHER POINTS

My official office hours are Tuesday and Thursday mornings from 9:00 to 10:30. However, feel free to just stop by anytime; if I cannot meet with you immediately I will be happy to set up a mutually convenient time for us to talk. If you have any questions, any questions at all, please ask them. Ask them in class, ask them after class or before class. Just ask! If I don’t know the answer, we will find it out together. Remember, asking questions after final grades have been assigned is too late. Particularly in a graduate course, questions are an integral part of learning and there are no stupid questions!