IRES: International Research Experience for Students on the Behavioral Ecology and Conservation of African Carnivores

标题：IRES：学生在非洲食肉动物行为生态学和保护方面的国际研究经验非技术摘要这一国际研究培训计划允许高级本科生和初级研究生在肯尼亚进行关于自由生活的非洲食肉动物的实地研究，建立在马赛马拉国家保护区强大的长期肉食动物研究计划的基础上。每年有几名学生将参与一些项目，旨在获取有关生活在马拉-塞伦盖蒂生态系统中的食肉动物的新的有用信息，并与肯尼亚科学家建立牢固、持久的专业关系。一个由美国和肯尼亚的训练师组成的强大团队将帮助学生解决一系列关于非洲食肉动物的行为、保护和生理学的研究问题，从他们认知能力的演变到人类活动对他们应激生理的影响。结对的本科生和研究生将通过专题研究重点联系在一起，并与当地专家密切合作。在肯尼亚期间，学生们将接受科学写作方面的明确培训，并在肯尼亚野生动物服务机构主办的关于食肉动物生物学的年度会议上展示他们的工作。这里为学生提供了无与伦比的研究机会，不仅可以研究几种仍然知之甚少的食肉动物物种的生物学，还可以在行为生态学、应激生理学和保护生物学方面做出重要贡献。在这项研究中获得的知识应有助于保护非洲食肉动物，从而促进肯尼亚的经济福祉，而肯尼亚的经济福祉与生态旅游收入密切相关。这项研究计划也将对新一代全球科学家的专业发展做出重大贡献，他们团结在一起，渴望了解和保护自然世界。技术摘要该项目的智力重点是非洲食肉动物的行为生态学、生理学和保护。哺乳动物食肉动物对世界各地生态系统的稳定性和完整性至关重要，这在很大程度上是因为它们在调节物种间竞争和捕食者-猎物动态等重要生态系统过程中发挥着关键作用。然而，尽管食肉动物很重要，但由于栖息地退化和直接人类迫害，它们在全球范围内正在衰落。事实上，今天，即使在保护区内，许多食肉动物的数量也在下降。近年来，我们保护包括非洲大多数食肉动物在内的哺乳动物的能力已经变得很明显，这是因为我们对它们的基本生物学的许多方面缺乏了解。这一国际研究培训计划旨在填补我们在非洲食肉动物方面的知识空白，并将这些新知识应用于改善食肉动物的管理；因此，该计划最终将促进整个非洲大陆的食肉动物保护。在拟议的资助期内，学生将使用实验和观察方法来测试假设，这些假设包括：1)社会复杂性、觅食需求和一般智力之间的关系；2)合作行为的内分泌基础；3)人类活动如何影响哺乳动物食肉动物的行为、生理和人口统计学；以及4)最佳食肉动物管理实践。这是美国唯一一个本科生和研究生都可以获得实地研究经验的培训项目，他们可以研究自由生活的非洲食肉动物的生物学。过去参加这个项目的大多数人都报告说，他们在肯尼亚的经历改变了他们的生活，让他们走上了职业发展的轨迹，否则他们做梦也想不到这一点。

Title: IRES: International research experience for students on the behavioral ecology and conservation of African carnivoresNontechnical abstractThis international research training program allows advanced undergraduates and junior graduate students to spend extended periods conducting field research on free-living African carnivores in Kenya, building on a strong long-term program of carnivore research in the Masai Mara National Reserve. Several students each year will undertake projects designed to acquire new and useful information about the carnivores inhabiting the Mara-Serengeti ecosystem, and to develop strong, long-lasting professional relationships with Kenyan scientists. A strong team of American and Kenyan trainers will help students address a broad array of research questions about the behavior, conservation and physiology of African carnivores, ranging from the evolution of their cognitive abilities to the effects of human activity on their stress physiology. Pairs of undergraduate and graduate students will be linked by topical research focus, and work closely with local experts. While in Kenya, students will receive explicit training in science writing, and present their work at an annual conference on carnivore biology sponsored by the Kenya Wildlife Service. The research opportunities offered to students here are unparalleled, not only to investigate the biology of several carnivore species that remain very poorly understood, but also to make important contributions to behavioral ecology, stress physiology and conservation biology. The knowledge acquired in this research should facilitate conservation of African carnivores, and thus contribute to the economic well-being of Kenya, which is intimately linked with revenues from eco-tourism. This research program will also contribute significantly to the professional development of a new generation of global scientists who are united in their desire to understand and protect the natural world.Technical abstractThe intellectual focus of this project is the behavioral ecology, physiology, and conservation of African carnivores. Mammalian carnivores are critical to the stability and integrity of ecosystems around the world, largely because they play key roles in regulating such important ecosystem processes as interspecific competition and predator-prey dynamics. Despite their importance, however, carnivores are in global decline due to a combination of habitat degradation and direct human persecution. In fact, today many carnivore populations are declining even within protected areas. It has become clear in recent years that our ability to conserve mammalian carnivores, including most of those in Africa, is limited by a dearth of knowledge about many aspects of their basic biology. This international research training program aims to fill these gaps in our knowledge in regard to African carnivores, and to apply that new knowledge to improving carnivore management; this program should thus ultimately facilitate carnivore conservation across the African continent. During the proposed funding period, students will use experimental and observational methods to test hypotheses suggesting 1) relationships among social complexity, foraging demands and general intelligence, 2) endocrine substrates of cooperative behavior, 3) how anthropogenic activities affect the behavior, physiology and demography of mammalian carnivores, and 4) best carnivore management practices. This is the only training program in the United States where both undergraduate and graduate students can obtain field research experience investigating the biology of free-living African carnivores. Most past participants in this program have reported their experiences in Kenya to be life-changing, setting them on trajectories of professional development they otherwise never would have dreamed possible.