Applying Tinbergen’s four questions to a conservation problem: Tolerance to humans in a social desert species

Conservation behavior is the application of animal behavior knowledge and methodologies to help conserve species and ecosystems. In order to ensure that behavioral research can indeed be useful in conservation contexts, the choice of the study system and research question has to be made together with conservation practitioners, and study results must be translated into feasible and actionable recommendations. Nevertheless, in this talk I am going to focus on approaching a conservation behavior problem from a behavioral standpoint, and I will use tolerance to humans in the Nubian ibex, Capra nubiana, as a case study. Nubian ibex are iconic desert-adapted social ungulates that once ranged widely in North Africa, across the Arabian Peninsula, and into the Levant, but are now threatened throughout most of their range. They form local populations around perennial water sources, but in recent years, some of these water sources are artificial, and are found inside human settlements. Ibex in such anthropogenic environments show increased tolerance towards humans, and this high tolerance leads to many cases of human-ibex conflict which is detrimental to both humans and ibex. I will demonstrate how we have applied Niko Tinbergen’s ‘four questions’ approach to understand the causation, development, evolution, and function of tolerance to humans in the Nubian ibex, and will discuss how the insights gained in these studies can be used to alleviate human-ibex conflict.