Dean of the College Presents
Faculty Seminar
Wednesday, April 22, 2015
Olin Humanities, Room 102
When Good Animals Make Bad Decisions: Evolutionary Traps as Conservation Threats and Tools
Presented by Bruce Robertson
Do you ever find yourself attracted to something you know is bad for your health? You may be caught in an evolutionary trap. Evolutionary traps are scenarios that occur when the behavioral cues we use to make decisions, suddenly lead us to prefer behaviors that reduce our survival and reproduction, instead of increasing it. Traps generally occur when the environment changes too rapidly for natural selection to act to adapt animals to new conditions or when their ability to learn is slow. As humans rapidly transform the planet, we are creating novel species interactions and objects that can fool wild animals into preferring behaviors that potentially lead to their own extinction. I will discuss my research exploring why evolutionary traps occur in wildlife populations, what we are learning about how to eliminate traps or minimize their impacts on wildlife, and how we might even use evolutionary traps as highly effective weapons against invasive species that threaten the existence of native species through their disruption of ecosystems.
Faculty and staff are invited to join us at 6:30 p.m. for a reception in the Olin Atrium prior to the event.
For more information, call 845-758-7490, or e-mail [email protected].
Location: Olin Humanities, Room 102