By: Michael E. Patterson, Jessica M. Montag, Daniel R. Williams

The paper focuses on how increasing urbanization of rural landscapes has created new challenges for wildlife management. The authors try to examine the wildlife management implications of changes associated with increasing urbanization, and employ two case studies to illustrate this issue. The first study is over a controversy on urban deer management, which provides insights on how to map conflicting values, and search for common ground in urban culture. The other case examines a community faced with predator reintroduction. The second case study also investigated the tensions that occur when the community of interest is broader than the community in which the problem occurs. In this debate the rights of the animals, individuals, and community is front and center. The conclusion mentions the need for wildlife institutions for the changes in social context caused by urbanization.

– Alejandro Vinueza