Robert Crabtree

By Bob Crabtree and Adrian Treves Effective wildlife management and sound science should work together because both depend on accurate predictions of their outcomes. The methods they use, whether an experiment, a management decision, or a statistical model, must be evaluated to determine how good their predicted outcomes are. Scientific testing of such methods is as necessary, if not more so, than testing a hypothesis because methods are used to test hypotheses and make decisions. The...

PREFACE: Why the testing of assumptions is the key to reliable, unbiased scientific methods that get at the truth. The coupling of best management practices with sound, unbiased science for wildlife conservation should go hand in hand because both measure success by their ability to predict outcomes. In fact, you can answer the question, “How good is your science?”—whether experiments, management decisions, or statistical models—by evaluating the bias of the outcome, which is the...