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

职务名称：IRES：国际研究经验，为学生的行为生态学和保护非洲食肉动物Nontechnical abstraction这个国际研究培训计划，让先进的本科生和大三的研究生花很长一段时间进行实地研究，自由生活的非洲食肉动物在肯尼亚，建立在一个强大的长期计划的食肉动物研究在马赛马拉国家储备。每年有几名学生将开展旨在获得有关居住在马拉-塞伦盖蒂生态系统的食肉动物的新的和有用的信息的项目，并与肯尼亚科学家建立牢固，持久的专业关系。一个强大的美国和肯尼亚培训师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，从他们的认知能力的演变到人类活动对他们的压力生理的影响。成对的本科生和研究生将通过专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，学生们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工作。这里提供给学生的研究机会是无与伦比的，不仅要调查仍然知之甚少的几个食肉动物物种的生物学，而且要对行为生态学，应激生理学和保护生物学做出重要贡献。在这项研究中获得的知识应促进非洲食肉动物的保护，从而有助于肯尼亚的经济福祉，这是密切相关的生态旅游收入。这个研究项目也将大大有助于专业发展的新一代全球科学家谁是团结在他们的愿望，以了解和保护自然世界。技术abstractThe智力的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，主要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关键作用。 然而，尽管它们很重要，但由于栖息地退化和人类直接迫害的结合，食肉动物在全球范围内正在减少。事实上，今天许多食肉动物的数量甚至在保护区内也在下降。近年来，我们保护哺乳类食肉动物（包括非洲的大多数食肉动物）的能力受到了对其基础生物学许多方面知识缺乏的限制。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，并将这些新知识应用于改善食肉动物管理;因此，该计划最终应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假设，这些假设表明：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质，3）人为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。这是美国唯一的培训计划，本科生和研究生都可以获得实地研究经验，调查自由生活的非洲食肉动物的生物学。该计划的大多数过去的参与者都报告说，他们在肯尼亚的经历改变了他们的生活，使他们走上了他们从未梦想过的职业发展轨道。

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.