Apex Predators in the Anthropocene How Humans Shape Large Carnivore Populations

The complexity of the interactions between people and carnivores has never been greater. Such interactions often result in conflict and negative outcomes for both humans and carnivores, with important implications for human well-being and biodiversity loss. At the same time, charismatic carnivores are revered and championed by many. Such complexities position human-carnivore interactions as a highly contentious global issue. Humans simultaneously influence, threaten, and support carnivores and the prey they depend upon. These coupled human-ecological dynamics will ultimately determine the fate of carnivore populations and the well-being of people who share landscapes with them. This book highlights the emergent research exploring the complex ways humans and carnivores interact. It provides an integrative review of this research by collating the theory, empirical studies, and critical analyses quantifying these dynamics and examining their implications for management and conservation action. The editors take a holistic and ecologically centred approach to bring together threads of research from coupled human and natural systems, population, behavioural, community, and ecosystem ecology, and conservation biology in a unified volume that is domain deep and internationally broad in scope. This accessible volume will appeal to academics, natural resource professionals, and graduate-level students interested in how humans impact trophic system structure and carnivore ecology. It will be of particular relevance and use to scientists and practitioners working at the interface of carnivore ecology, conservation, and human-wildlife interactions.

Robert A. Montgomery is a Professor of Conservation Science, Director of the Centre for National Parks and Protected Areas, and Director of Research and Knowledge Exchange in the Institute of Science and Environment at the University of Cumbria. His research group explores fundamental questions of carnivore movement and habitat decisions, the implications of human lethality for large mammal population ecology, the mechanisms associated with human-wildlife conflict, biodiversity monitoring and verification, as well as scenario-planning to engineer a more prosperous and sustainable future. Montgomery has published over 140 peer-reviewed papers and book chapters of his research around the world. Remington J. Moll is an Associate Professor of Wildlife Ecology and Management at the University of New Hampshire, USA. There he leads a research group that studies the spatial, community, and population ecology of carnivores and their prey, with a focus on these species' management and conservation. He has published over 55 peer-reviewed papers in scientific journals. In this work, he has collaborated with more than 110 scientist and practitioner co-authors at institutions located in 17 countries.