Marc Bekoff's research while affiliated with University of Colorado Boulder and other places

... A growing number of efforts have focused on restoration of native carnivores within historic ranges (Carver et al., 2021;Ripple et al., 2022;Wolf & Ripple, 2018). Apex carnivores can enhance ecosystem function, acting as keystone species and generating trophic cascades with myriad direct and indirect effects on herbivores, mesopredators and plant communities (Estes et al., 2011;Peterson et al., 2014). ...

... play faces in primates; Waller & Dunbar, 2005), whole-body movements (e.g. play bows in dogs; Bekoff & Allen, 1998), or vocalisations (e.g. warble calls in kea; Schwing et al., 2017). ...

... Conservation researchers have resisted using emotions like compassion for why and how conservation, potentially because of a perceived false dichotomy between emotions and reason (Batavia et al., 2021). Recently, the IPBES global assessment report on biodiversity and ecosystem services recognized emotions as critical predictors (e.g., facilitators of learning and behavior; Li & Monroe, 2018) and emotions as key outcomes (e.g., nature exposure affects mental health; Jimenez et al., 2021). ...

... While animal welfare science has made important advances in improving the treatment of animals, there are critiques that it does not necessarily view animals as beings with intrinsic value [4]. For instance, animal rights theorist Gary Francione criticizes animal welfare as an inadequate approach to dealing with the fundamental issues of the animal agriculture industry [5]. ...

... To use a previous example, the use of the term "invasive" is predicated on a utopic Western conception of "nature" existing in a pure state without humans or human impacts and is used to justify vast numbers of violent acts against animals and plants-alongside human residents-in the name of conservation (Wallach et al., 2020), continuing a mode of engagement based on human domination or management. Classifications of beings as "pests" on the far side of the imagined wall can have violent political power, seen in Nazi Germany, during the Rwandan genocide, and in the United States during World War II, when the Japanese Army was portrayed as lice and mosquitos, complete with language surrounding infestation and extermination (Raffles, 2011). ...

... The welfare of captive animals has been a persistently topical ethical issue in modern times (Maple, 2007;Pierce & Bekoff, 2018), with research being dedicated to identifying ways to reduce stress and the expression of stress-related abnormal behaviours that are expressed by many captive species (Birkett & Newton-Fisher, 2011;De Azevedo et al., 2013;Düpjan & Puppe, 2016;Learmonth, 2019). This expression of abnormal behaviours by animals in captivity is a well-known phenomena (Rose et al., 2017;Schouten & Wiegant, 1997;Swaisgood & Shepherdson, 2005). ...

... In discussing the impact on animals of many observational studies, Jewell [23] asks how to reconcile the welfare of an individual with the welfare of a species. This question is at the heart of the debate as to whether "compassionate conservation" that includes an emphasis on protecting individual animals [114] serves the goals of "conservation biology," including such goals as preserving biological diversity and preventing extinctions. These issues are not exactly the issues of potential dangers of applying facial recognition algorithms to wild animals, but they are clearly related. ...

... Certainly, the desire to forestall nearterm extirpation is a compelling argument for taking extreme measures, including wolf control (Hervieux et al. 2014). However, opponents of wolf control argue that wolves are being killed mainly because of the government's unwillingness to address the root causes of caribou declines, which relate to ongoing habitat degradation (Proulx et al. 2017). There is merit to both perspectives and the final decision is likely to be made in the court of public opinion. ...

... 415animal behavior can further update some of their conceptual frameworks and research practices416 (as elaborated in the previous section), which may simultaneously foster the endorsement of their 417 findings by non-scientists pursuing related questions. Among the most notable successes in this 418 regard is pioneering work in the area of compassionate conservation, which attempts to appease 419 tensions between scientists who conventionally focus on species and populations and ethicists 420 who typically focus on individuals(Ramp & Bekoff, 2015). ...

... Another review (Kujala 2017), followed by a thread of invited commentaries, explored the questions of if and how dogs may experience emotion, but no review has so far focused on the issue of perception of emotion cues, and more importantly on the methodologies used to study this topic. An increase in studies ( Fig. 1) has been changing the status of the domestic dog in biological research, from inadequate/irrelevant for "real biology" due to its domestication, to an ideal model species (Cooper et al. 2003;Miklosi 2014;Topal et al. 2009) for understanding a range of phenomena, from explanations of their uniqueness (Miklosi 2014;Prato-Previde and Marshall-Pescini 2014) to the evolution of communication and emotion in humans and non-human animals (Andics et al. 2014;Gruber and Bekoff 2017;Hare 2007). Given this increased scientific interest in this field, an early critical appraisal of concepts and methodologies is timely for future research. ...