Gavin Bonsen
A career in research allows me to follow my dreams of travelling the world doing conservation work
Describe your research project
Human-predator conflict has existed since the domestication of livestock. With advances in weapons and other deadly methods, as well as expanding human populations, the world is becoming increasingly dangerous for large predators. This is an important issue because large predators have driving capabilities in maintaining healthy ecosystems by triggering 'trophic cascades': a process whereby changes in predator populations influence species down the food chain. As an example, the reintroduction of wolves into Yellowstone National Park in North America, after 70 years of extirpation, had dramatic effects on the ecosystem, bringing it back to its natural state. Without wolves, the elk populations exploded, which had devastating effects on the vegetation, destroying habitat for many other species. Here is a really interesting short documentary on Youtube outlining the cascading effects of the wolf reintroduction in Yellowstone: 'How wolves change rivers" (opens an external link).
