Student Conference on Conservation Science: New York 2025

Student Conference on Conservation Science: New York

Center for Biodiversity and Conservation at the American Museum of Natural History

Oct 15-17, 2025

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A multi-scalar behavioral framework for conservation planning: Illustrating applications for Allegheny woodrat reintroduction in the Shawangunk Ridge, New York

Accepted Abstract

Reintroduction programs are widely used in conservation but frequently fail to establish self-sustaining populations. A growing body of research suggests that insufficient integration of animal behavior into planning contributes to these outcomes. Although the field of conservation behavior (Berger-Tal et al., 2011) highlights the importance of behavioral processes, there remains limited guidance on how to operationalize these insights in reintroduction planning.

This study develops a conceptual, multi-scalar framework for incorporating animal behavior into conservation decision-making and illustrates its application using the Allegheny woodrat (Neotoma magister) in the Shawangunk Ridge, New York. The framework links key behavioral domains to ecological scales, including movement at the landscape scale, foraging and vigilance at the habitat scale, social organization at the niche scale, and species-specific perceptual processes at the level of the umwelt.

Drawing on published ecological and behavioral literature, this study synthesizes species-specific requirements and identifies potential constraints relevant to reintroduction planning, including habitat connectivity, food resource variability, and predation risk. The case study demonstrates how a behaviorally informed approach can reveal mismatches between traditional habitat-based planning and the behavioral needs of a species. While theoretical in nature, this framework provides a structured approach for integrating behavioral data into conservation planning and offers practical insights for improving the design of reintroduction programs. More broadly, it contributes to ongoing efforts to bridge the gap between animal behavior research and applied conservation practice.