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Wildlife Vocalizations: Rhiannon Kirton
Wildlife Vocalizations is a collection of short personal perspectives from people in the field of wildlife sciences.
I would like to see the wildlife field become more diverse over the next 50 years. I hope by the time that I am retired it is common to see people of many different ethnic backgrounds contributing to this field. Having people with diverse perspectives and backgrounds can only strengthen our ability to address the diverse challenges which we encounter in wildlife ecology and management. I was drawn to this field because I felt that wolves and other predators were maligned and misunderstood by society. Maybe I, as a young Black girl in a rural area, somewhat identified with them. I find that our connections with nature and our views on wildlife management are often a reflection of/interwoven with our views on society in a broader sense. Huge parts of wildlife management involve personal relations and social science. Thus, I think we have much to gain by committing to diversity initiatives and making efforts to foster greater diversity in practitioners coming into our field. Additionally, it would make it a whole lot less isolating for those of us already here.
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