Data derived largely from ecclesiastical (mostly churchwardens¿) accounts, foxhunting statistics, local scientific society records and 19th and 20th century literature sources from a wide range of published material, have provided detailed evidence of the status and changes in distribution over the past four centuries in Yorkshire for fox (Vulpes vulpes), badger (Meles meles), otter (Lutra lutra), pine marten (Martes martes), stoat (Mustela erminea), weasel (M. nivalis), polecat (M. putorius), American mink (M. vison), wildcat (Felis silvestris) and domestic cat (Felis catus). In the case of the domestic cat, questionnaire surveys quantified population sizes and predatory activity in rural, suburban and urban situations. Evidence of the former distribution of all the carnivores studied provides a credible historical basis for biodiversity action planning and the substantial archived database and bibliography provide further research opportunities.

The trophy hunting of African leopards Panthera pardus pardus may generate revenue to help foster their conservation. However, leopards are sensitive to hunting and populations decline if overharvested. The practice therefore requires careful management grounded in robust estimates of population density/status. Camera-trap surveys are commonly used to establish leopard numbers, and may guide harvest quotas. However, such surveys are limited over wide spatial scales and many African governments lack resources to implement them. In this thesis I explore the potential use of a harvest composition scheme applied to puma Puma concolor in North America, to monitor leopards. The method hinges on the susceptibility of different leopard cohorts to hunting and if this varies, then predictions can be made about harvest composition. Susceptibility is likely to be governed by space use, encounter rates with bait lures (a common method used to attract leopards to hunting hides) and hunter selectivity. Thus in this thesis I explore leopard susceptibility to these factors using a protected leopard population in northern Zululand, South Africa. In my first chapter I examine using scent lures in camera-trapping. Against a backdrop of a passive survey I show adult males, females and sub-adults are captured at similar rates compared to a passive survey using lures. The use of lures does not appear to violate closure assumptions or affect spatio-temporal patterning, but their use appears limited as density estimate precision is not improved. My second chapter examines ecological (likelihood of encountering a hunter) and anthropogenic (attractiveness to hunters) susceptibility of leopards to trophy hunting. I show that adult males are the most susceptible cohort to hunting (sub-adults least susceptible). I then take the incident rates from ecological and anthropogenic models and create a theoretical harvest composition using population parameters of protected leopards. My third data chapter departs from hunting susceptibility and examines determinants of leopard trophy package price across Africa. I show that factors such as trophy quality, outfitter leopard hunting reputation and hunt success have little impact on price determination. Instead, overall outfitter reputation and the number of charismatic species in a package are positively correlated with price. These results have important consequences on several sustainable leopard hunting schemes proposed in the literature.

The research reported here arose from perceived lacunae regarding archaeological understanding of mesolithic settlement in eastern Scotland. Historically this area, for a number of reasons, has seen 1ittle archaeological research in comparison to the maritime west of the country, a bias that requires redressing. The characteristics, problems and potentials of available data are assembled for the first time and critically assessed. Discussion of methodologies appropriate to this material is developed, and small-scale fieldwork undertaken within this framework presented. Any introduction of a new range of data is, in part, a construction of that data, and the particular interpretative and thematic stresses of the thesis arise from the argument that narratives of gatherer-hunter communities in the past have objectified those groups, consequently hindering comprehension of them. To this end an approach to a social archaeology of the mesolithic is developed, stressing the importance of examining skills and routines that, through thei; extension in particular contexts, may have structured an agent's experience of landscapes in the past. In order to flesh out these arguments and introduce the material evidence in more detail, a series of overlapping case studies is developed exploring in turn, the relationships between mesolithic folk and woodlands, the significance of salmon fishing, the inhabitation of the coast, and stone tool procurement, production and discard. These varied narratives incorporate the results of a range of small-scale desktop projects and fieldwork designed to test the potential of this approach to a social archaeology of the period. Whilst these studies are at present fragmentary, it is contended that they demonstrate that accounts of gatherer-hunter communities in the east of Scotland can aspire to a meaningful level of engagement with human lives in the past. The project scholarship was funded by Historic Scotland.

Thesis (MPhil (Philosophy))--University of Stellenbosch, 1999. / The hunters and anti-hunting have been arguing for years over whether or not trophy hunting should be allowed. While attempts have been made to resolve the issue, no widely acceptable solution has yet been found. Hunters have put forward various arguments including: religion, instinct, sustainable utilization, money, excessive populations and the wildlife management support argument. These have usually been criticized for being management orientate and not addressing the focal question of the anti-hunters: 'What gives man the right to hunt'. Anti-hunters have countered these arguments and presented new ones. These include: cruelty, animal rights, animal liberation, special and rare species as well as religion and wildlife management support arguments. The anti-hunters have used sympathy and emotion to gain support for their movement while making effective use of the media. Hunters on the other hand have been slow to make use of this communication tool. In presenting their arguments, a fundamental difference has been identified between the use of the various terms. The seemingly simple word 'ethics' has been used by the hunters to mean a code of conduct while the anti-hunters have used this word in indicate the morality of man's actions. The inherent value of an animal has also been debated. Does an animal have value in and of itself or does it only have value in that it is useful to man? Furthermore, is it the individual animal, the species or the population which has value? The value of wildlife as a natural resource and the right to use this resource is also discussed. Do developed countries have the right to determine the use that a developing country may make of its resources? Leopold's land ethics is discussed an it is shown how hunting preserves the integrity, stability and beauty of the biotic community. In order to address the issues raised by the debate, it is necessary for the hunters and the anti-hunters to be willing to work towards common goals. It is unlikely that either side would ever be willing to give up their position but if they can agree to work towards some common goals, the long on-going debate would have achieved something. For this reason, four solution to this debate are looked at and analyzed. Their weakness and failures are discussed as well as their strong points. Taylor's Priority Principles are then analyzed to identify the first steps that need to be taken in draWing up guidelines for hunting. While this assignment does not attempt to identify these guidelines it does point out the need to have such guidelines and establishes that there can be common ground. Also, that it is desirable to achieve this aim. The assignment highlights the need for groups to work towards common goals without having to give up their beliefs and standpoints. There will be time later to determine whether or not man should hunt. In the meantime, man should be focussing on hunting ethically - both in the moral sense and within the framework of a good code of conduct.

published_or_final_version / Chinese / Doctoral / Doctor of Philosophy

My dissertation focuses on the ways the Orochen-Evenki reindeer herders and hunters living in the taiga and villages of the northern part of the Zabaikal’ia responded and adapted to a post-Soviet environment.  This environment featured the collapse of a centralized system of resource redistribution and the privatization of collective property.  One important response by people was to appropriate taiga territories for subsistence, as well as increase their reliance on taiga resources.  Hence, vernacular notions of mastery (R. <i>khoziian</i>) and luck (O. <i>kutu</i>, R. <i>udacha</i>) have become important Orochen concerns shaping their interactions with other persons as well as taiga places or achieving hunting and herding success.  Drawing on ethnographic and comparative sources, this thesis investigates the underdeveloped concept of mastery in Siberian ethnography.  Orochen mastery describes relational forms of power intrinsic to interactions among humans, animals and spirits associated with different places, material objects and experiences of luck.  Luck is achieved because of the good will of master-spirits and because the hunter is strong enough to win his contests with animals.  Hunters and herders engage in complex relations of cooperation with other persons aiming to gain luck and maintain well-being, while at the same time relying on aggression to achieve hunting success.  They creatively re-enact old forms of rituals for gaining success in subsistence, securing their territories as well as reassessing their identities.  This study also is critical of statements founding countless ethnographies that animals give themselves to hunters as long as they are treated with respect.  Rather it is here suggested that these interactions are based on complex relations as well as experiences infused with anxiety, ambiguity and doubt.

Approved for public release; distribution is unlimited / This thesis centers around actual field operations and post-mission analysis of data acquired using a REMUS AUV operated by the Naval Postgraduate School Center for Autonomous Underwater Vehicle Research. It was one of many platforms that were utilized for data collection during AOSN II, (Autonomous Oceanographic Sampling Network II), an ONR sponsored exercise for dynamic oceanographic data taking and model based analysis using adaptive sampling. The vehicle's ability to collect oceanographic data consisting of conductivity, temperature, and salinity during this experiment is assessed and problem areas investigated. Of particular interest are the temperature and salinity profiles measured fromlong transect runs of 18 Km. length into the southern parts of Monterey Bay. Experimentation with the REMUS as a mine detection asset was also performed. The design and development of the mine hunting experiment is discussed as well as its results and their analysis. Of particular interest in this portion of the work is the issue relating to repeatability and precision of contact localization, obtained from vehicle position and sidescan sonar measurements. / Lieutenant, United States Navy

Large carnivores are in decline throughout their range primarily due to anthropogenic influences. This is a concern because these species have high social, economic and ecological value. African lion (Panthera leo) populations are in decline in most parts of the continent and this has been attributed largely to habitat loss, habitat fragmentation, wire snare poaching, black market trafficking in lion parts, retaliatory killings, and poorly regulated trophy hunting. In order to implement effective lion conservation actions, the effect of each factor on lion demography or population dynamics must be well understood. In the past, most studies have used indirect methods to quantify the effects of hunting on lion demography. The temporary ban on lion hunting in Zambia allowed me to study directly how removing a key source of mortality, for males in particular, changed the demography. Using data collected from 2008-2015, I studied how the lion population in and around South Luangwa National Park, Zambia responded to a 3-year moratorium on lion trophy hunting implemented in 2013. For the duration of the study ban, I monitored 386 known individuals in 19 prides and 15 male coalitions. Reproductive activity as represented by cub production appeared to improve after the hunting ban and the number of individually identifiable lions in the study area steadily increased from 88 in 2008 to 197 in 2015. Using a Cormack-Jolly-Seber model, I found that apparent annual survival increased in the absence of hunting for all adult male age classes. The temporary ban on hunting was lifted in 2016 and I recommend that quotas remain conservative in order to allow more time for the population to recover, particularly in the adult male age classes. Better monitoring protocols should also be implemented to promote compliance with hunting regulations.

In Chaucer's Canterbury Tales, The Monk's Tale is compromised of seventeen individual tales, which instead of serving a moral lesson one would expect of a clergy member, serves as a quasi-hunt that allows the Monk to participate in his favorite, violent hobby. The Monk personifies fortune as a hunter, striking down successful men who are unsuspecting of the violent downfall which awaits them. The Monk structures his tale to resemble the different stages of a hunt and fills it with violent, animalistic, and erotic imagery that works to strengthen the Monk's perception of his own masculinity while simultaneously providing a form of sexual pleasure that he is otherwise forbidden to experience. Hunting played a significant role in medieval society and literature. Though clergy members were typically forbidden or discouraged from participating in the sport, significant aspects of the history surrounding medieval hunting shed light on the Monk's identity as primarily a hunter.

This thesis analyses the use of remote sensing technologies in efforts that seek to combat wildlife crime in East and Southern Africa. Companies and organisations working on the development of remote sensing technology used for anti-poaching efforts, in the study region, are identified through the creation of a database. The social impacts and risks involved in using these technologies are then outlined by analysing the responses to a research survey from those in the conservation community working with wildlife crime. The species focus is on rhino and elephant poaching, thus, the thesis begins with a background on the legislation surrounding both the hunting and trade of these species. Stockpiling of rhino horn and elephant tusk will be discussed as well as other anti-poaching strategies that do not use remote sensing technology. Three key research questions are then answered: Which remote sensing technologies are in use and what kinds of companies and organisations are mainly working on their development? What are the main risks of using remote sensing technology to specifically target wildlife crime in this region? And can the increased use of remote sensing technologies to combat wildlife crime be regarded as an extension of the militarised approach to conservation? The last question is discussed in relation to existing research on this topic. Considering the findings from this paper, recommendations for further research are then made.