Wildlife Economics The Significance of Economic Impacts of Wildlife Associated Activities

Like baseball and apple pie, wildlife is an integral part of life in the United States.Wildlife interactions and conservation are traditions shared by many Americans.Recently there has been a greater demand for more complex skills needed to address human-wildlife conflict, aspects of wildlife management, and conservation.The wildlife professional of today needs more than what a basic degree in wildlife science, management, or conservation provides.This poses a particular challenge because wildlife impacts not only people living in areas containing wildlife, but also people located in neighboring areas.Therefore, costs and benefits for wildlife "source" areas will differ from those faced by other areas.One particular issue with wildlife related research is that all too often many of the costs of wildlife are not fully considered.Some economists are now trying to quantify the informal nature of the wildlife sector.This new field has little formal organization and its researchers are scattered among many academic fields.This dissertation deals with emerging wildlife issues and discusses how wildlife professionals can address these problems.The following combination of three related essays exhibits the usefulness of spatial econometrics when measuring the impacts of human-wildlife interactions.These essays deal with prominent wildlife related issues in North America that wildlife professionals will have to address in the near future.These topics include deer-related auto accidents, property damage caused by black bears, and the impact of shark attacks on hotel occupancy.