2007 Conservation Behaviour Brown Bag Lunch: Notes

On Monday, 23 July 2007, the ABS Conservation Committee hosted a ‘Conservation Behaviour Brown Bag Lunch.’ There were 75 people in attendance including 6 members of the conservation committee: Dan Blumstein, Ilonka von Lipke, Bruce Schulte, Debra Shier, Ron Swaisgood, and Colleen Cassady St. Clair. Colleen described the purpose and activities of the committee and introduced the members who were present. She invited attendees to briefly introduce themselves and the large group separated into break-out groups to discuss the 5 goals the Conservation Committee had earlier established for the year. The goals and the suggestions written down by the break-out groups follow. The Conservation Committee will consider these ideas further.

  1. Increase the profile of Conservation Behaviour within the ABS

  • Have conservation lecturer / lectures at ABS meetings

  • Host a continued workshop at meeting, maybe a themed workshop with techniques / problems on topic before / after the meeting

  • Increase practical on-the-ground solutions

  • Have a conservation award for talks and posters

  • Provide travel grants for conservation related attendees

  • Encourage journal to publish more applied / conservation behaviour articles

    • Action: Dan Blumstein, Esteban Fernandez-Juricic, and Colleen St. Clair met with Mike Breed, Executive editor of Animal Behaviour. Mike said that, other things being equal, there is no systematic bias against conservation behaviour. He did acknowledge that only one paper concerning conservation behaviour had been submitted in the past year. Thus the lack of Conservation Behaviour in our journal may have more to do with submission rates than rejection rates!

  • Encourage journal to explicitly recognize conservation implications

    • Dan, Esteban, and Colleen (above) requested that the journal encourage discussion of conservation implications. Draft wording will be suggested to Mike Breed.

  • Use a listserve for communication

  • Increase visibility of conservation committee on ABS website

  • Ensure conservation is a recurring theme at meetings

    • Action: Colleen St. Clair asked Diana Hewes (incoming senior program officer) to add Conservation Behaviour to upcoming meetings’ list of topics

  • Have silent auction items donated to support Conservation Committee



  1. Increase the profile of Conservation Behaviour outside the society

  • Encourage other behaviour journals to publish works related to conservation (e.g., Behaviour)

    • Action: Brian Wisenden invited Bruce Schulte has become an Editor with Behaviour

  • Use public libraries to spread awareness among the general non-scientific folk with exhibits

  • Form alliance with folks in SCB to help sponsor a symposium or talk session on behaviour there

  • Make a trip to NSF to talk to programme officers on possibility of funding initiatives; ask NSF to have a conservation behaviour panel

  • Consider approaching foundations for some project funding opportunities

  • Increase contact with ISBE and other conferences

  • Encourage professors to allow students to do research that advances both animal behaviour and conservation biology

  • Submit more articles about conservation to behaviour journals

  • Give public talks to non-academic audiences

  • Use webpage to connect interested students with professors and programs.

  • Contact key agencies: Wild Ducks Ltd, Nature Conservancy, WWF

  • Advertise success stories to high profile public places.



  1. Continue to offer and expand resources to those interested in Conservation Behaviour

  • Liaise with local management and government agencies

  • Start / increase asking questions in conservation behaviour; bring conservation behaviour into the mainstream of animal behaviour umbrella



  1. Create a more formal structure of governance within the Conservation Committee to increase our efficiency and ensure that we move forward with our goals.



  1. Other goals? Please feel free to list some or send them to the Conservation Committee (c/o Colleen at [email protected]) at any time.

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