Speaker: Justin Brashares, Professor of Wildlife Ecology & Conservation, UC Berkeley
Over the last few decades, the science and management of large carnivores has focused on the role these apex predators play in maintaining healthy ecosystems. This research has centered on the ways in which large carnivores promote species diversity, but it has more recently expanded to consider how predators may impact not just other species but also processes like fire, carbon sequestration and disease. In this talk, Justin will report on field research from West Africa that highlights the far-reaching influence of large carnivores, particularly lions and leopards, on ecosystems and people, and some unexpected consequences of their loss. He will then bring us closer to home by introducing us to new research on the very current recovery of grey wolves and other large carnivores in California. The quiet recovery of large predators in California has already returned coyotes to our backyards and mountain lions to our hills, but there is more to come, and it is certain to provoke controversy!
Organizer: Mary E. Power, Professor of the Graduate School, Department of Integrative Biology