Wildlife

• What are wildlife?

• What is wildlife ecology? Management? Conservation?

• How have definitions & perceptions changed through time?

• How does knowing this help me as a wildlife biologist/manager?

Wildlife

• Game animals

• An organic resource that can be managed on a sustained-yield basis

• Birds and mammals

• All undomesticated animals (in a natural environment)– Fish

• All living thing’s (in a natural environment)

Wildlife

• Any member of the animal kingdom, including without limitation any mammal, fish, bird (including any migratory, non-migratory, or endangered bird for which protection is also afforded by treaty or other international agreement), amphibian, reptile, mollusk, crustacean, arthropod or other invertebrate, and includes any part, products, egg, or off-spring thereof, or the dead body parts or parts thereof– U.S. Congress

Wildlife

• Free-living animals of major significance to man

• All animals– The Wildlife Society

• Terrestrial vertebrates

Changes through time

Wildlife Ecology

• The study of the relationship between wildlife and their environment

Wildlife Management

• The art of making land produce sustained annual crops of wild game for recreational use– Aldo Leopold (1933)

• The art of making land produce valuable populations of wildlife– J. Bailey (1984)

Wildlife Management

• The practical ecology of all vertebrates and their plant and animal associates along sound biological lines– The Wildlife Society/Journal of Wildlife

Management (1937)

• Stewardship of wildlife

Wildlife Conservation

• “How shall we conserve wild life without evicting ourselves”– Aldo Leopold

• “Man living in harmony with the land”– Aldo Leopold

Wildlife Conservation

• A social process encompassing both lay and professional activities that define and seek to attain wise use of wildlife resources and maintain the productivities of wildlife habitats– J. Bailey (1984)

• Management, administration, education, law enforcement, & research

Wildlife Conservation

• The application of ecological knowledge to populations of vertebrate animals and their plant and animal associates in a manor that strikes a balance between the needs of those populations and the needs of people– Bolen & Robinson (2003)

Wildlife Management

• The guidance of decision-making processes and implementation of practices to purposefully influence interactions among and between people, wildlife and habitats to achieve impacts valued by stakeholders– Riley et al. (2002)

Wildlife Management/Conservation

• The application of ecological knowledge to wildlife and habitats that balances the needs of people with that of wildlife– W. Giuliano

Wildlife Management

• Goal– Increase, decrease, maintain, or stabilize

• Featured (single) species management• Multiple species management• Biodiversity management• Ecosystem management Animal

PeopleHabitat

Wildlife Management

• Increase, decrease, maintain, or stabilize– Direct– Indirect

• Manipulative (active) v. custodial (preservation)

N

Time

Management

Wildlife Management

www.wildlife.org

HumanDimension

Animal

Habitat

WildlifeManagementLandscape Ecology

Zoology

Herpetology

Mammalogy

Ornithology

Life History

Animal Ecology

Genetics

Population Dynamics

Psychology

SociologyEconomics

Technical Writing

Law

Public Speaking

CommunicationsPolicyGovernmentGeology

Range Management

Forestry

Soil Science

AgronomyPlant Morphology

Plant Ecology

Wildlife Management

(W.W. Mautz/Wildlife Management Institute 1978)

Wildlife Management

If left alone, wildlife can often manage themselves--it’s people that need managing

Wildlife conservation is primarily people management

Wildlife Management

• The Wildlife Society– Mission (www.wildlife.org)

• “The Wildlife Society (TWS), founded in 1937, is an international non-profit scientific and educational association dedicated to excellence in wildlife stewardship through science and education. Our mission is to enhance the ability of wildlife professionals to conserve diversity, sustain productivity, and ensure responsible use of wildlife resources for the benefit of society. The Wildlife Society encourages professional growth through certification, peer-review Publications, Conferences, and working groups.

• Society members are dedicated to sustainable management of wildlife resources and their habitats. Ecology is the primary scientific discipline of the wildlife profession, therefore, the interests of the Society embrace the interactions of all organisms with their natural environments. The Society recognizes that humans, as other organisms, have a total dependency upon the environment. It is the Society's belief also that wildlife, in its myriad forms, is basic to the maintenance of a human culture that provides quality living.”

Wildlife Management

• The Wildlife Society– Journals

• Journal of Wildlife Management, Wildlife Society Bulletin, Wildlife Monographs, & The Wildlife Professional

I have read many definitions of what is a conservationist, and written not a few myself, but I suspect that the best one is written, not with a pen, but with an axe. It is a matter of what a man thinks about while chopping, or while deciding what to chop. A conservationist is one who is humbly aware that with each stroke he is writing his signature on the face of his land. Signatures of course differ, whether written with axe or pen, and this is as it should be.

A. Leopold

So what!