Frontiers in Conservation Science | New and Recent Articles

The Cerrado ecodomain has experienced significant fragmentation and habitat loss, primarily due to agricultural expansion and, more recently, the rapid increase in sugarcane cultivation. This study examines how landscape composition and configuration affect the richness and community composition of medium- and large-sized mammals in southwestern Goiás, Brazil, a region extensively modified by sug…

Human–Elephant Conflict (HEC) has escalated into one of India's most serious conservation and socio-economic challenges, with high costs for both people and elephants. We examined national-level trends in HEC from 2009 to 2024 and evaluated the effectiveness of current policies in mitigating it. Over the past 16 years, a total of 7,868 human fatalities were recorded from elephant encounters, aver…

A goal of applied ecology is to evaluate how demographic rates contribute to population growth and how demography might be manipulated to achieve management objectives. In western North America, many feral horse (Equus caballus) populations occupying public lands are protected by federal law and managed for site-specific numerical targets. However, feral horses can exhibit population growth rates…

IntroductionIdentifying individual white-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus) for treatment with porcine zona pellucida (PZP) immunocontraceptive vaccines is critical to the success of fertility management programs, but adult female deer are very difficult to distinguish in the field. Past research has relied on chemical immobilization and ear-tagging to assure individual identification, but this…

Conservation translocations can promote species recovery but are prone to failure due to low post-release survival. Mounting evidence suggests that intrinsic attributes like personality and stress physiology can impact how individuals cope with translocation and acclimatize to the release site. Here, we investigated relationships among personality, biomarkers of stress, post-release movement, and…

IntroductionGlobal landscape transformations and increased resource use are leading to an overall decline in ecosystem health and natural habitat quality. Due to their low trophic position, small body size, and close association with environmental conditions, rodents can serve as effective biological indicators of ecosystem health and anthropogenic disturbance by monitoring their behavior and phy…

IntroductionGiraffe populations across Africa face increasing pressures from habitat loss, poaching, and climate-driven resource scarcity, often intensifying interactions with nearby communities. In eastern Kenya, these pressures have contributed to emerging human–giraffe conflict (HGC), including crop losses, competition for water, and occasional livestock injuries. Although this reticulated gir…

Morbidity and mortality from infectious diseases are an important health consideration for free ranging great apes, and respiratory illness (RI) is of particular concern in mountain gorillas (Gorilla beringei beringei), accounting for 25% all of mortalities. In addition to ongoing efforts to determine the etiology of RI in mountain gorillas, an improved understanding of environmental and demograp…

Understanding how ecological and social constraints interacted to shape bison hunting systems during the late Holocene reveals the dynamic ways bison hunting strategies adapted to changing conditions. At the Bergstrom site in central Montana, bison were hunted intermittently for roughly seven centuries before archaeologically visible use ceased near 1100 cal yr BP. To explain why hunting stopped …

American bison (Bos bison) were spared from numerical extinction but considered to be ecologically extinct, partially due to spatial restrictions in their former range. A key component of the ecological function of bison is their ability to adjust their spatial behaviors at multiple scales to match the seasonal distributions and availability of resources. To understand how management influences t…

Underpasses have a fundamental potential in mitigating infrastructure barriers for wildlife, considering that they are a relatively common feature across traffic networks. Increasing our understanding of the functionality of the different designs and localities of underpasses is therefore crucial within infrastructure planning and management. We analyzed crossing probability, based on movement-tr…

This article explores the potential existence of a conceptual “River Transition Curve” model in water quality and community-based river management, using Costa Rica and Honduras as case studies. It draws parallels to the well-established Forest Transition Curve, which describes how forest cover changes over socio-economic development stages: initial deforestation, stabilization, and eventual refo…

This article addresses the critical global challenge of promoting sustainable practices for the use of renewable natural resources. In this research this is studied by analyzing the barriers and facilitators of behavior change in the sustainable harvesting of Sphagnum magellanicum moss in the Los Lagos Region of Chile. This study fills a significant knowledge gap by exploring how to design and im…

Human activities such as land conversion and resource consumption can cause species declines, which in the United States can result in listing for protection and recovery under the Endangered Species Act. Often highly charismatic species, such as bald eagles, grizzly bears, Pacific salmon, and North Atlantic right whales, get linked to human activity and social conflict emerges. This conflict can…

PurposeThis study investigates the acceptability of wildlife tourism joint ventures (JVs) among rural communities in northern Tanzania’s Wildlife Management Areas (WMAs). These partnerships between communities and external investors aim to conserve biodiversity and deliver sustainable socioeconomic benefits. Guided by the Cognitive Hierarch Model (CHM), the research examines how values, beliefs a…

Trace minerals found in the diet are essential for animal health, but the role of mineral supplementation in maintaining bison health or boosting immune response is relatively unknown. This study evaluated the impact of an oral drench supplement containing Co, Cu, Se, and Zn—minerals associated with immune function—in reducing mortality and maintaining health in response to a Mycoplasma bovis out…

IntroductionVitamin E and selenium are vital micronutrients that play key roles in metabolic functions and antioxidant defense, directly influencing equid health. There are no published reference intervals for concentrations of these micronutrients in healthy donkeys. Methods: We compared serum vitamin E and whole blood selenium concentrations in wild, recently captured donkeys with concentration…

Across the western United States, introductions of non-native fish into historically fishless mountain lakes have impacted native biota. Understanding the impacts of fish introductions is essential for conservation in Olympic National Park, a Biosphere Reserve. We reconstructed fish plantings using records dating back to 1930, followed by environmental DNA (eDNA) surveys to estimate the current d…

Elephants, vital to India’s ecological and cultural fabric, now navigate increasingly fragmented habitats, rising incidence of negative interactions with humans. This has resulted in substantial casualties on both sides, with India reporting over 500 human deaths and approximately 100 elephant fatalities from retaliatory killings annually. Long-term solutions to mitigate human-elephant conflict i…