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

标题：IRES：为学生提供关于非洲食肉动物行为生态学和保护的国际研究经验非技术摘要这项国际研究培训计划允许高年级本科生和低年级研究生花较长时间对肯尼亚自由生活的非洲食肉动物进行实地研究，以马赛马拉国家保护区食肉动物研究的强大长期计划为基础。每年都有几名学生将开展项目，旨在获取有关马拉-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。由美国和肯尼亚培训师组成的强大团队将帮助学生解决有关非洲食肉动物的行为、保护和生理学的广泛研究问题，从认知能力的演变到人类活动对其应激生理学的影响。本科生和研究生将通过主题研究重点联系起来，并与当地专家密切合作。在肯尼亚期间，学生将接受科学写作方面的明确培训，并在肯尼亚野生动物管理局主办的食肉动物生物学年度会议上展示他们的作品。这里为学生提供的研究机会是无与伦比的，不仅可以研究人们知之甚少的几种食肉动物物种的生物学，而且可以为行为生态学、应激生理学和保护生物学做出重要贡献。这项研究中获得的知识应有助于保护非洲食肉动物，从而有助于肯尼亚的经济福祉，这与生态旅游收入密切相关。该研究项目还将为新一代全球科学家的专业发展做出重大贡献，他们团结一致地渴望了解和保护自然世界。技术摘要该项目的知识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，很大程度上是因为它们在调节种间竞争和捕食者-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人类直接迫害，它们的数量正在全球减少。事实上，如今，即使在保护区内，许多食肉动物的数量也在减少。近年来，我们已经清楚地认识到，我们保护哺乳动物食肉动物（包括大多数非洲食肉动物）的能力受到对其基础生物学许多方面缺乏了解的限制。这项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，并将新知识应用于改善食肉动物管理；因此，该计划最终将促进整个非洲大陆的食肉动物保护。在拟议的资助期间，学生将使用实验和观察方法来测试以下假设：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，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调查自由生活的非洲食肉动物生物学的实地研究经验的培训项目。该项目的大多数过去的参与者都表示，他们在肯尼亚的经历改变了他们的生活，使他们走上了他们以前从未梦想过的职业发展轨迹。

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.