The ethics of intervening in animal behaviour for conservation

• Published in: Trends in ecology & evolution (Amsterdam) 2023-09, Vol.38 (9), p.822-830
• Main Authors: van Dooren, Thom, Price, Catherine J., Banks, Peter B., Berger-Tal, Oded, Chrulew, Matthew, Johnson, Jane, Lajeunesse, Gabrielle, Lynch, Kate E., McArthur, Clare, Parker, Finn C.G., Oakey, Myles, Pitcher, Benjamin J., St. Clair, Colleen Cassady, Ward-Fear, Georgia, Widin, Sam, Wong, Bob B.M., Blumstein, Daniel T.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: behavioural change; conservation behaviour; conservation ethics; conservation values; wildlife management
• ISSN: 0169-5347; 1872-8383
• DOI: 10.1016/j.tree.2023.04.011

Conservation scientists often modify or take advantage of existing animal behaviour to achieve management outcomes.To date, there has been little analysis of the ethical issues potentially raised by modifying animal behaviours in this way.These ethical issues include animal welfare, interference in the expression of animals’ normal behaviours, impacts on nontarget species, and impacts on local human communities.Assessing the goals of a behaviour intervention against a set of explicit values is an essential step in the development of ethical approaches to conservation.We provide a framework for considering the relationship between values, goals and conservation actions, and a decision support tool for comparing and contrasting the ethical dimensions of possible conservation behaviour interventions against alternative options. Conservation behaviour is a growing field that applies insights from the study of animal behaviour to address challenges in wildlife conservation and management. Conservation behaviour interventions often aim to manage specific behaviours of a species to solve conservation challenges. The field is often viewed as offering approaches that are less intrusive or harmful to animals than, for example, managing the impact of a problematic species by reducing its population size (frequently through lethal control). However, intervening in animal behaviour, even for conservation purposes, may still raise important ethical considerations. We discuss these issues and develop a framework and a decision support tool, to aid managers and researchers in evaluating the ethical considerations of conservation behaviour interventions against other options.