Carnivores 2006: Conference Announcement & Call for Papers Defenders of Wildlife is pleased to announce Carnivores 2006: Habitats, Challenges, and Possibilities. The conference, the sixth biennial, which has averaged between 700 and 800 attendees over the last two conferences, will be held at the Hilton Hotel in St. Petersburg, Florida, November 12-15, 2006, and will feature three full days of sessions on terrestrial and marine carnivore issues, plus a poster session, field trip, silent auction, banquet and ambassador wolf sessions. Defenders is accepting oral and poster presentation submissions for Carnivores 2006. On this year's Conference Science Advisory Committee is a team of 15 scientists, including 4 marine scientists: From Mote Marine Lab: Dr. John Reynolds, Dr. Randy Wells, Dr. Nélio B. Barros From the Center for Ocean Health, U.C. Santa Cruz/Long Marine Lab: Dr. Jim Estes At the present time, there is a plan to have the following sessions around marine mammals: * Special sessions on bottlenose dolphin foraging ecology will include presentations on a variety of topics, such as predator-prey dynamics, foodweb modelling, and prey determination by stomach content, stable isotope, fatty acid and genetic analyses. * Human Interactions with Marine Mammals * Sea Otters The session on marine carnivores is certainly not limited to these session topics above, so please feel free to submit abstracts on the variety of areas listed below. Abstract submissions must be received by 1 June 2006. We will consider any papers covering topics such as biology, behavior, taxonomy, general ecology, recovery, management, and economic impacts of terrestrial, avian and marine carnivore species (canids, bears, cats, mesocarnivores, raptors, pinnipeds, whales, dolphins, sea otters, sharks, etc), and also papers addressing carnivore habitat issues, with some of the focus in the southeastern U.S. (including but not limited to habitat conservation, planning and linkages, invasive species, land use and development challenges, etc). Please visit our official conference website, www.carnivoreconference.org or leave a message at 202-789-2844 x315 for complete Carnivores 2006 details. To get an idea of the nature of talks, please let me know if you'd like me to email you a pdf of a past conference agenda. If submitting an abstract, please follow the online instructions, and, in addition, please cc me with your abstract. thanks, Jim Curland Jim Curland, Marine Program Associate Defenders of Wildlife P.O. Box 959 Moss Landing, CA. 95039 831-726-9010-phone 831-726-9020-fax jcurland@defenders.org Defenders of Wildlife, founded in 1947, is dedicated to the protection of all native wild animals and plants in their natural communities. We focus our programs on what scientists consider two of the most serious environmental threats to the planet: the accelerating rate of extinction of species and the associated loss of biological diversity, and habitat alteration and destruction. Long known for our leadership on endangered species issues, Defenders of Wildlife also advocates new approaches to wildlife conservation that will help keep species from becoming endangered. Our programs encourage protection of entire ecosystems and interconnected habitats while protecting predators that serve as indicator species for ecosystem health. http://www.defenders.org http://www.kidsplanet.org http://www.defenders.org/wildlife/new/seaotters.html (Above link is Defenders Main Sea Otter Page) http://www.kidsplanet.org/espanol/espint.html (Above link is Defenders Sea Otter Unit) http://www.defenders.org/wildlife/new/marine.html (Above link is Defenders Marine Page) http://www.defenders.org/california/marine.html (Above link is Defenders California Programs-Marine Protection)