Member Event: Wildlife Tolerance Messaging by Bonnie E. Gulas-Wroblewski, PhD.

Wildlife Tolerance Messaging by Bonnie E. Gulas-Wroblewski, PhD.

Whether we know it or not, all of us engages in wildlife tolerance messaging whenever we answer wildlife hotlines, conduct public education programs, interact with concerned citizens who have rescued animals, or promote human-wildlife coexistence on social media. Fortunately for us, a significant amount of theoretical and experimental research in the fields of conservation psychology and social marketing have revealed methods that we can employ to more effectively persuade our audiences to tolerate wildlife. This presentation will briefly review concepts from conservation psychology and social marketing as pertinent to human-wildlife conflict and coexistence outreach. Then we will delve into a behavior change model (Bruskotter & Wilson’s (2014) tolerance model for large carnivores), which can be adapted for use with all wildlife species. Finally, we’ll discuss the particular salience of One Health messaging for motivating people to coexist with wildlife, support their protection,…