Research in Endangered Species Conservation: An Introduction to Multiple Methods

Tim W. Clark
Yale University School of Forestry and Environmental Studies, 301 Prospect Street, New Haven, CT 06511 and Northern Rockies Conservation Cooperative, Box 2705, Jackson, WY 83001
timothy.w.clark@yale.edu
Richard P. Reading
Denver Zoological Foundation, 2900 East 23rd Avenue, Denver, CO 80205
zooresearch@denverzoo.org
Richard L. Wallace
Environmental Studies Program, Ursinus College, P.O. Box 1000, Collegeville, PA 19426
rwallace@ursinus.edu

Abstract
Diverse methods may be required to understand and solve conservation problems in species recovery.
These problems are usually multi-faceted. Endangered species recovery is a biological challenge,
but it also requires that professionals and the public support an organized recovery effort in
a timely, rational, and effective way. Biological, social, and interdisciplinary methods all lend
themselves to aid the multi-dimensional task of species recovery, although social science and interdisciplinary
methods are little used currently. These three kinds of methodological approaches are
briefly examined. We end the paper with a call for increased interdisciplinary approaches, as we
believe they promise greater effectiveness in species conservation.