Study Material / Wildlife Ecology (November 2024)
Wildlife Ecology
November 2024
3 credits
12 weeks
Prof. Ankur Awadhiya
IIT Kanpur
Practice
Solutions
Wildlife is an enamouring field for most of us. In my professional tenure, I've observed numerous people flocking to get a glimpse of the tiger, to get an opportunity of diving with the fishes, or to get access to a National Park or a Wildlife Sanctuary. And these experiences gets even more endearing when you get to know how the show is getting managed, how and why we regulate access, and also how we maintain grasslands and water bodies to keep the systems up and running. This course will cover one such aspect of wildlife management by providing an overview of the field of Ecology, and also how it is being used in the understanding and management of our wildlife resources. In this course, we'll use the casestudy approach with real-life examples from the field to get a better understanding of the field and its applications.
Last updated in November 2024.
Week 1
Introduction
  • Introduction to the Course
  • A Historical Overview of Ecology
  • Ecology and Evolution
Week 2
Ecological Structure
  • The levels of Organization
  • Species Abundabce and Composition: Biodiversity
  • Biodiversity-II
Week 3
Ecological Interactions
  • Positive Interactions
  • Negative Interactions
  • Study of Behaviour and Behavioral Ecology
Week 4
Ecological Energetics
  • Food chains, Food webs and Trophic levels
  • Primary Production
  • Nutrient Cycles
Week 5
Population Ecology
  • Population Paremeters and Demographic Techniques
  • Population Growth and Regulation
  • Population Studies and Applications
Week 6
Community Ecology
  • Community Nature and Parameters
  • Community Changes and Ecological Succession
  • Community Organization
Week 7
Distribution and Abundance
  • Biography: Analysis of Geographic Distributions
  • Why are things where they are?
  • Some Push and Pull factors in greater detail
Week 8
Management of Threatened Species
  • Threats of Species
  • In-situ Conservation
  • Ex-situ Conservation
Week 9
Human Ecology
  • Introduction and Impacts
  • Human Population Growth and Food requirements
  • Sustainable Development
Week 10
Ecology of change
  • Oil Spills
  • Plastic and Biodiversity
  • Impacts of Climate Change
Week 11
Applied Ecology
  • Optimum Yield Problem
  • Biological Control
  • Ecotoxicology and pollution management, Restoration Ecology
Week 12
Revision
  • Revision (Part 1)
  • Revision (Part 2)
  • Revision (Part 3)