The conservation of endangered species is a venture marked by ambiguity. Whether the right populations are being protected from the appropriate threats to the precise degree, is a question that governments and conservationists are constantly evaluating. In such times of uncertainty, decision makers often turn to science for the answers. Whether it was the pug-mark census of yore or the modern camera-trapping method, tiger conservation, for instance, is purported to be based on science. Yet while using science to make decisions, there is a crucial assumption made both by the government and the general public. Their belief that science will provide the answers they want, may not always be true.
While it is true that science can provide results, these may not always be in a form that people desire.
Science may not have all answers
While governments and the public seem to expect that science can build a solid result based on the foundation of incomplete knowledge, this is unrealistic, particularly in the field of conservation science. The species that need protection are typically rare, shy and difficult to spot or follow. Very few people are familiar enough with an endangered vulture or snow leopard to recognise an individual and make distinctions. To many of us one great Indian bustard looks like another, as do the endangered Mahseer fish. Given that so little is known, how does science enable us to know more? Since the exact feeding, sleeping and breeding grounds of endangered species like the tiger or leopard are not well known, trying to find out exactly how many there are at any given point of time is next to impossible.