Sources of Heterogeneity in Grasslands: Responses of Wildlife to People on Savanna Landscape

在全世界野生动物保护区的设计和管理中，一个重要而悬而未决的问题是：传统的人类土地利用在保护区中扮演着什么角色，特别是当这些土地利用与自然系统有着长期的进化关系时？同样重要的是土著管理系统向更现代系统的文化演变问题，以及这些变化对保护区外野生动物的影响。我们的研究将是世界上首批解决这两个问题的研究之一。这个项目将研究东非大草原上的这些相互作用，在那里，我们的原始人祖先和野生动物至少已经共存了400万年，在那里，这些相互作用将得到深入发展，这是合乎逻辑的。通过实地实验、航空调查和图像分析，我们的项目将研究传统牧民如何以及为什么影响马拉-塞伦盖蒂生态系统中的大型哺乳动物种群。然后，该项目将开发描述人与野生动物相互作用的强大模型，东非的土地管理者可以利用这些模型来保护这些宏大的野生动物生态系统，以应对当前土地保有权的变化和牧民的经济机会。这项研究还将为在美国西部和其他地方解决这些问题提供一个模式，在这些地方，保护管理试图模仿土著人民的做法，努力维护完整的本土生态系统。

An important, unresolved question in the design and management of wildlife reserves worldwide is: What is the role of traditional human land-use in conservation areas, particularly when those land uses have a long evolutionary relationship with the natural system? Equally important are questions about the cultural evolution of indigenous management systems into more modern systems and the impacts of these changes on wildlife outside reserves. Our study will be one of the first in the world to address both of these problems. This project will study these interactions in the savannas of East Africa, where our hominid ancestors and wildlife have lived side-by-side for at least 4 million years, and where it is logical to expect that these interactions will be deeply developed. Through field experiments, aerial surveys, and imagery analysis, our project will examine how and why traditional pastoral peoples affect large mammal populations in the Mara-Serengeti ecosystem. The project will then develop robust models describing people-wildlife interactions that land managers in East Africa can use to conserve these grand wildlife ecosystems in the face of current changes in land tenure and economic opportunities for pastoral peoples. This research will also provide a model for addressing these questions in the western US and other places where conservation management attempts to mimic the practices of indigenous peoples in efforts to maintain intact, native ecosystems.