About this course

All people worldwide interact with wildlife. Humans may perceive such interactions as positive or negative. Positive interactions involve wildlife tourism, occasional encounters, and harvest (subsistence and safari hunting) while negative interactions relate to crop damage, livestock depredation, direct attack on humans as well as zoonotic diseases. The course will address issues related to all major categories of human-wildlife interactions, with a focus on sustainable management. Part of the course will focus on case studies from different geographical areas where a multidisciplinary group of guest lectures present results from their research. The entire course will depend on student participation. Students are expected to write a ~6-page semester assignment that will be published electronically on the MINA web site.

Learning outcome

Knowledge

The student will have a research-based multidisciplinary understanding of human-wildlife conflicts and sustainable co-existence and know the different broad categories of human-wildlife interactions

Skills

The student will be able to judge the quality of information in human-wildlife interaction literature and capable of evaluating different human-wildlife interaction scenarios and suggest sustainable mitigating alternatives in conflict situations. Students will be able to work independently with writing a scientific report using current methods, scientific arguments, and theories.

General competence

The student will be able to synthesize skills and knowledge on human-wildlife interactions to a broad set of situations. Based on the experience with reading and evaluating scientific literature the student should be able to write a science-based reports on several related topics.

  • Learning activities

    Seminars, lectures and discussions.

  • Teaching support

    The candidate's learning is supported through academic supervision, also on an individual basis. Supervision during the work with the term paper is particularly emphasised.

  • Syllabus

    The reading material consist of high-quality scientific articles. Articles and other reading material will be made available in Canvas. Some core reading materials are to be used in the work with their semester assignment.

  • Prerequisites

    Completed Bachelor´s degree.

  • Assessment method

    The course is evaluated based on a term paper.

    Term paper Karakterregel: Letter grades

  • About use of AI

    Term paper: K3 - Full use of AI.

    The use of AI is permitted, but it must comply with the Guidelines for Use of Artificial Intelligens (AI) at NMBU.

    Descriptions of AI-category codes.

  • Examiner scheme

    An external examiner evaluates all the term papers.

  • Teaching hours

    Seminars and lectures: 25 hours.

  • Admission requirements

    Minimum requirements for entrance to higher education in Norway (generell studiekompetanse)