Exploring human dimensions of hunting via social science, evolutionary ecology, and personal experience

In episode 140 of The Hunting Collective podcast, Ben O’Brien does a fascinating and good-natured follow up interview with Dr. Barrie Gilbert. Dr. Gilbert is a prominent bear biologist, friend of Raincoast, and previous verbal sparring-partner with Ben (at least when it comes to the hunting of predators). Ben invited Dr. Gilbert back for another interview, and they made productive amends. 

As part of a commitment to try to understand the broader context, nuance, and controversies surrounding the topic of hunting, and hunting of predators in particular, Ben O’Brien also interviewed Raincoast science director Dr. Chris Darimont. Among many hunting-related topics they spoke in depth about some of the applied conservation research the team at the Raincoast lab at UVic have undertaken about the psychological, social, and evolutionary dimensions underlying the behaviour of hunters.

We are pleased to share this podcast. Although Raincoast strongly opposes sport and trophy hunting – and especially of large carnivores, which are seldom killed for food – we are not anti-hunting. In fact, although their conservation ethic does not revolve around their hunting, several members of our team are food hunters. One food hunter among us is Chris Darimont. 

Related resources

• Listen to the interview with Dr. Barrie Gilbert
• Ebeling-Schuld, A. M. and Darimont, C. T. (2017), Online hunting forums identify achievement as prominent among multiple satisfactions. Wildlife Society Bulletin. doi: 10.1002/wsb.796
• Darimont, C.T., B.F. Codding, and K. Hawkes. 2017. Why men trophy hunt. Biology Letters 13: 20160909. Open Access.
• Hunting for status: men trophy hunt as a signal they can absorb the costs
• Child, K.R, and C.T. Darimont. 2015. Hunting for trophies: online hunter photographs reveal achievement satisfaction with large and dangerous prey. Human Dimensions of Wildlife 20(6): 531-541. Open Access.
• Confronting the elephant (head) in the room – researchers challenge the conservation community on the ethics of trophy hunting
• Darimont, C.T., and K.R. Child. 2014. What enables size-selective trophy hunting of wildlife? PLOS ONE 9(8): e103487. Open Access.
• Evidence, values, policy, and the advance of science

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Raincoast’s in-house scientists, collaborating graduate students, postdoctoral fellows, and professors make us unique among conservation groups. We work with First Nations, academic institutions, government, and other NGOs to build support and inform decisions that protect aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems, and the wildlife that depend on them. We conduct ethically applied, process-oriented, and hypothesis-driven research that has immediate and relevant utility for conservation deliberations and the collective body of scientific knowledge.

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