Incorporating hunter behaviours into harvest management models is key to understanding the impact or management alternatives on trends in CWD in Alberta. Involvement of hunters in management programs could result in increased harvesting opportunities unless individual hunters avoid hunting in CWD areas. The changes in hunter behaviors regarding perspectives of risk, as prevalence levels increase over time represents an opportunity for integration of biological processes (population growth, CWD transmission) with socioeconomic variables (hunter effort and success) to influence expected outcomes of management alternative for CWD. We use a bioeconomic model framework that integrates economic and disease ecology models to improve disease management recommendations. A key advantage of an integrated approach is that it reflects the feedbacks between changes in wildlife populations that can occur, costs and benefits of these changes to people, and subsequent ongoing changes in hunting behavior that, in turn, further affect cervid populations.
Status: completed