Editorial : How prides of lion researchers are evolving to be interdisciplinary

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dc.contributor.author Montgomery, Robert A.
dc.contributor.author Kissui, Bernard M.
dc.contributor.author Hayward, Matt W.
dc.date.accessioned 2020-01-27T07:23:39Z
dc.date.available 2020-01-27T07:23:39Z
dc.date.issued 2019-10-01
dc.description.abstract Lions (Panthera leo) are one of the most charismatic, enigmatic, and polarizing species on the planet (Macdonald et al., 2015; Albert et al., 2018; Courchamp et al., 2018). Human connections to lions, as functional members of ecological communities and as icons of strength and courage, are truly cross-cultural (Schaller, 1972). Lion symbology, for instance, appears around the world, even in geographic locations outside of the species range (McCall, 1973). The images of lions adorn currency, jewelry, art, clothing, corporate logos and masonry, among others, where they are used and traded on a daily basis (Evans, 1896; Olupona, 1993; Mwangi, 2002). People experience strong emotions when in the company of lions whether that be at zoos, from the relative safety of a safari vehicle, or while grazing livestock on open rangelands in Africa or India (Hemson et al., 2009; Goldman et al., 2010; Meena et al., 2014). Lions clearly command reverence and yet, as humans, we have grown acutely accustomed to conflict with this species. Fears relating to insecurity and loss of livestock motivate swift and aggressive retaliatory responses to lions (Patterson et al., 2004; Dickman, 2010; Millspaugh et al., 2015). Thus, lions seem capable of captivating and scaring humans in equal measure. Perhaps not surprisingly then, here in the twenty-first century, lions are a species of immense conservation concern and one that has defied numerous efforts toward population restoration outside of inviolate protected areas. Lions have experienced precipitous and unabated population declines over the last 100 years causing the conservation community to periodically downgrade the species conservation status (Bauer et al., 2015; Riggio et al., 2015). The conservation of lions therefore presents a thorny challenge. In their contributing paper to this special issue, Montgomery et al. identify that human-lion conflict is a highly complex issue involving not only the two implied domains (i.e., humans and lions), but also characteristics of livestock and human culture, factors associated with wild prey populations, and abiotic conditions in the environment. This paper articulates that the issue of human-lion conflict is one that is clearly multifaceted and multidimensional. Several calls among the scientific community have demonstrated the utility of evaluating complex problems with research teams that are multidisciplinary, interdisciplinary, and, hopefully at some point, transdisciplinary (White and Ward, 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 issue features 11 papers exploring these topics across the range of lions from West Africa to East Africa and from South Africa to the Greater Gir Landscape of India. en_ZA
dc.description.department Centre for Wildlife Management en_ZA
dc.description.librarian am2020 en_ZA
dc.description.uri http://www.frontiersin.org/Ecology_and_Evolution en_ZA
dc.identifier.citation Montgomery RA, Kissui BM and Hayward MW (2019) Editorial: How Prides of Lion Researchers Are Evolving to Be Interdisciplinary. Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution 7:374. DOI: 10.3389/fevo.2019.00374. en_ZA
dc.identifier.issn 2296-701X (online)
dc.identifier.other 10.3389/fevo.2019.00374
dc.identifier.uri http://hdl.handle.net/2263/72923
dc.language.iso en en_ZA
dc.publisher Frontiers Media en_ZA
dc.rights © 2019 Authors. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). en_ZA
dc.subject Carnivore en_ZA
dc.subject Conflict en_ZA
dc.subject Conservation en_ZA
dc.subject Interdisciplinary en_ZA
dc.subject Multidisciplinary en_ZA
dc.subject Lion (Panthera leo) en_ZA
dc.subject Lion researchers en_ZA
dc.title Editorial : How prides of lion researchers are evolving to be interdisciplinary en_ZA
dc.type Article en_ZA


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