Transcript Introduction to Wildlife Management

Marie Bolt
 Wildlife: free-ranging
birds, mammals,
amphibians, and reptiles
• Not all wild animals and plants
• Not fish
• Not just “game” species
• Not just “nongame” species
 Wildlife
management is the application of
ecological knowledge to populations of
vertebrate animals and their plant and
animal associates in a manner that strikes
a balance between the needs of those
populations and the needs of people.
 Preservation
• Nature takes its course without human intervention
 Direct
manipulation
• Animal populations are trapped, shot, poisoned, and
stocked
 Indirect
manipulation
• Vegetation, water, or other key components of
wildlife habitat are altered
 Wildlife
management is not purely basic
nor applied science, but uses both to
apply an integrated approach to solve a
given problem
 Not a “cookbook” approach
 Requires application of skill, knowledge
and imagination
 Ecology/Natural
History
 Law
 Habitat
Management
 Team Work
 Land Navigation/GIS/GPS
 Communications
 People Management
 Early
US/Colonial: game laws
 1800s: Increased regulation of game
 1900s: Gifford Pinchot “Resource Conservation
Ethic”
 1930s: Aldo Leopold, father of wildlife
management, “Game Management”
 1937: Pittman-Robertson Act, 10% tax on
hunting arms and ammo for research and
management by states
 The
qualities found in nature could be
considered “natural resources”. The goal of
proper use of natural resources is the greatest
good of the greatest number (of people) for
the longest time. (G. Pinchot)
• Resources should be fairly distributed among
present as well as future users
• Resources should be used with efficiency—that is,
put to the best possible use and not wasted (i.e.,
non-use is waste)
 The
most important goal of land management is
to maintain the health of ecosystems and
ecological processes. Maintaining these
ecological processes will ultimately give greater
long-term value to humans than managing
natural areas only for particular resources (A.
Leopold)
• Humans are part of the ecological community rather
than standing apart from nature and exploiting it
(move away from over-exploitation of “conservation
ethic”)
 1960s
and 1970s: greater expectations
• Changes from “maximum” to “optimal” yield for
game species
 1970s: Environmental
movement and
Environmental Laws (NEPA, ESA, CWA,
CAA, FIFRA, RCRA, CERCLA, etc.)
 1980s: National
Forest Management
Planning Act
 Late
1980s: Conservation Biology

Address complex issues with both research and
management skills by
• Reviewing the scientific literature
• Finding answers with field &/or lab work
• Implementing and evaluating remedies

Political, social & economic factors influence
methods and how successfully they can deal with
stewardship of wildlife populations and habitats
 Desired
Goal
 Appropriate
 Best
Management Option(s)
Management Action
 Where
do we want to go?
 Can we get there?
 Will we know we have arrived?
 How do we get there?
 What are the costs?
 What are the benefits?
 Will benefits exceed costs?
 Increase Population
• Endangered Species
 Decrease Population
• Nuisance species
 Harvest
• Game species
 Monitor
• Nongame species
 You
can not increase the numbers of all
species on every piece of land….when
you manage for certain species, you
manage against other species
 Exploitation
 Bison
 Passenger
Pigeon
 Other Extinctions
 Some Near Extinctions
 Problems of Excess
 Predator Control
 Exotic Wildlife
 God’s
instructions to Adam and Eve were
to “be fruitful, multiply, and replenish the
Earth, and subdue it, and have dominion
over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl
of the air, and over every living thing that
moveth on upon the Earth.” Genesis 1:28
 Eliminate
predators and competitors
 Repopulate with domestic animals
 Move “familiar” animals across the world
 Privileged classes and sport hunting
 Market hunting
 Waterfowl
 Bison
 Songbirds
 Plumage
 Beaver
hats
 To
1850, large population in American
West, coexisted with humans
 Provided food, shelter, bowstrings, fuel
 Grass-bison-human food chain for years
 6 million in 1860 to 160 in 1889
 Small herds existed & replenished
population
 Railroads
made
access easy
 Repeating rifles &
scopes
 Army condoned it
 Food for railroad
workers
 Hides/tongue
prized
 Most rotted, unused




Most abundant animal
on the planet
Migration darked the
sky
1871, 136 million in
central WI alone
Market hunting, nesting
habitat destruction,
single egg, no laws,
lead to extinction in
1914
 Steller’s
sea cow
 Carolina parakeet
 Labrador duck
 Heath hen
 Great auk









Wood Duck
Wild Turkey
California Condor
Beaver
Canada Goose
Mountain Lion
Grey Wolf
Double-crested
cormorant
Bald eagle
 White-tailed
deer
 Raccoon
 Canada
goose
 Beaver
 Double-crested
cormorant
 Two
charts
• Reindeer
• Mule deer
 Beaver
herd
Basin deer
 Bounties
• Not effective, no population changes
• Fraud
 Poison
controls
• Non-target animals
 Overall, not
effective
 Man
has moved animals from place to place
across the world, either intentionally or
unintentionally
 Exotic wildlife may increase or fail to prosper
 If they increase, many times they become
nuisance species
 Many examples on trying to control, “new
immigrants” who alter the ecology of the
habitats they are released into by
fulfilling/displacing native species niches
 Spotted
owl
 Sea turtles
 California condor
 Grey wolf
 Background
 Bison
 Lead
Poisoning
 Wood Ducks
 Wild Turkeys
 Mammals
 Marine Mammals
 Birds
 Elusive Measures
 1639, 1st
closed season for white-tailed
deer in Rhode Island colony (May-Nov)
 Many laws to protect species including
heath hens and passenger pigeons
 No ecological considerations, no habitat
protection
 No preservation of food, cover, water
 Not until 1900s did management occur





American Bison
Association, NY Zoo
Bison preserves
Yellowstone NP
Canada: 2 NPs, one for
Wood Buffalo
European bison
restocked in Bialowieza
Forest, Poland/Russia
2
Problems with
Bison reintroduction
• Lack of natural
predators, leads to
overpopulation
• Overpopulation and
outstripping
resources, and
control measures not
accepted by populus
 Primary
issues:
• Use of lead in
shotgun shells
• Use of lead in rifle
bullets
• Use of lead in fishing
gear
 Lead
shot
 Lead
Poisoning
• Banned in 1976/78
• Primary Routes
• Decrease in raptor
 Shot
 Grit for gizzard
deaths
• Decrease in waterfowl
losses
• No increase in
waterfowl crippling
deaths
 Grinding plus acid in
stomach, organo- lead,
neurotoxin
• Secondary Route
 Incidental ingestion of
lead in prey
Mean No. Lost/100 Retrieved
30
25
20
Ducks
Geese
Coots
All
15
10
5
0
Before (71-75)
During (76-78)
After (79-84)
 Rifle
bullets
• Issues for California
Condor
• Issues for Steller’s
sea eagle in Japan
 Migratory
Bird
Treaty Act, 1918
 Protected wood
ducks
 Population
rebounded without
help at first
•
•
•
•
•
1938, biologists in
Illinois erected wood
duck houses
Noticed insufficient
nesting sites
Quickly spread
Some areas have more
produced in boxes than
natural habitat
Now, 2nd/3rd most
abundant waterfowl
species
 Extirpated
in most
of North America by
1930s
 Reintroductions
were tried, many
failed
 Finally appropriate
genetic types were
used for each site
populations
were protected
 When appropriate,
hunting was allowed
 Now 40 states have
turkeys
Turkey Harvest in
Michigan
35000
30000
25000
20000
15000
10000
5000
0
19
70
19
80
19
90
20
00
 New
Harvest
•
White-tailed deer
– 0.5 million, 1900
– 12 million, 1980
•
Elk
– 0.04 million, 1900
– 1 million, 2000
•
Pronghorn antelope
– 13,000--1920
– 400,000--1980
•
Beaver
– Nearly extirpated 1800s
– Nuisance species, now
 Marine
Mammal
Protection Act
(1972)
 Endangered
Species Act (1973)
• Pinnepeds (seal)
• Sirenians (manatee)
• Cetaceans (dolphins
& whales)
 Sea
Otter
• Reintroductions, natural increases
• Protection from trapping, fishermen
• Orcas new threat in Aleutian Islands
 Gray
whales
• Predictable migratory route
• Stay close to shore
• Now problems with carrying capacity
• Salt plant in calving grounds
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

Trumpeter swans
Roseate spoonbills
Upland sandpipers
Sage grouse
Sharp-tailed grouse
Snowy egrets
Whooping cranes
Wood ducks
California condors
Heath hen
 “Candidates
for
oblivion” listed in
Our vanishing wild
life, by William
Hornaday 1913
 Only the Heath hen is
extinct today
 Bald
eagles
 Peregrine falcons
 Kirtland’s warbler
 Atlantic puffin
 Many other
species
 Need
to have neither extinction nor
excess populations
 How do we measure success, is 40 million
ducks from 400 million a success or a
failure?
 Need to include the social dimension in
answering these types of questions
 Technical
• Current status of population
 Size
 Rate of population change
 Reproductive capacity
 Seasonal requirements
 Social
• Public education
• Public support