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 Management Option(s)

Best 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 Basin deer herd

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• Banned in 1976/78• Decrease in raptor

deaths• Decrease in

waterfowl losses• No increase in

waterfowl crippling deaths

Lead Poisoning• Primary Routes

Shot Grit for gizzard

Grinding plus acid in stomach, organo- lead, neurotoxin

• Secondary Route Incidental ingestion of

lead in prey

0

5

10

15

20

25

30

Before (71-75) During (76-78) After (79-84)

Ducks

Geese

Coots

All

Mean No. Lost/100 Retrieved

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

New populations were protected

When appropriate, hunting was allowed

Now 40 states have turkeys

Turkey Harvest in Michigan

05000

100001500020000250003000035000

1970

1980

1990

2000

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

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