Wildlife in the cloud: a new approach for engaging stakeholders in wildlife management

Ambio. 2015 Nov;44 Suppl 4(Suppl 4):550-6. doi: 10.1007/s13280-015-0706-0.

Abstract

Research in wildlife management increasingly relies on quantitative population models. However, a remaining challenge is to have end-users, who are often alienated by mathematics, benefiting from this research. I propose a new approach, 'wildlife in the cloud,' to enable active learning by practitioners from cloud-based ecological models whose complexity remains invisible to the user. I argue that this concept carries the potential to overcome limitations of desktop-based software and allows new understandings of human-wildlife systems. This concept is illustrated by presenting an online decision-support tool for moose management in areas with predators in Sweden. The tool takes the form of a user-friendly cloud-app through which users can compare the effects of alternative management decisions, and may feed into adjustment of their hunting strategy. I explain how the dynamic nature of cloud-apps opens the door to different ways of learning, informed by ecological models that can benefit both users and researchers.

Keywords: Bear; Cloud-computing; Moose; Population models; Wildlife management; Wolf.

MeSH terms

  • Animals
  • Animals, Wild / physiology*
  • Cloud Computing*
  • Conservation of Natural Resources / methods*
  • Deer / physiology*
  • Sweden