History of Wildlife

Before Man: 11,500 B.P.

Around 11,500 B.P is when people showed up to North America

Earliest groups in North America

Paleo-Indians and the Clovis

Era of Abundance

plains were thick with bison (~60,000,000)

Era of Overexploitation

1850-1900; hunting to sell/eat, market hunting for food/fashion (millinery trade)

Squab

A delicacy (baby pigeon); trees were cut down to get to them

Bison population drop

1994: last free-roaming bison outside Yellowstone shot; 1902: only 23 free-ranging bison left, all in Yellowstone

Species lost forever (Extinct)

Passenger pigeons, Carolina parakeets, Steller's sea cows, Labrador duck, heath hen, the great auk, and the Hawaiian rail

The Lacey Act (1900)

Limits trade of illegal wildlife across state boundaries and stops interstate commerce in feathers

Golden Age in Conservation (Era of protection)

Tripled national forests, created the forest service, set aside oil/coal reserves and national monuments, and increased regulation enforcement (Theodore Roosevelt Contributed to this era)

Gifford Pinchot

Appointed head of forest service, coined the term conservation, and advocated for sustained "use" Apart of era of protection

John Muir and the Sierra Club

Wanted to conserve Yosemite and the neighboring Valley Hetch Hetchy apart of era of protection

Aldo Leopold

Father of wildlife management, wrote the report of the Committee on North American Game Policy (1930), and first professor of Game Management

Pittman-Robertson Act of 1937 & Dingell-Johnson Act of 1950

Acts supporting wildlife and game management/restoration

Era of Environmental Management

1966-1979 (or associated with 1970s acts); featured Earth Day 1970, ESA, Clean Water Act, Clean Air Act, Safe Drinking Water Act

Conservation Biology

An evolutionary-ecological perspective; current era focused on biodiversity and ecosystems

Exploitation vs. Overexploitation

Exploitation is living off land/seas; overexploitation is doing so at unsustainable levels

Overexploitation ranking

Biggest threat for marine systems; second only to habitat loss for terrestrial birds, mammals, and plants

K-strategist

Animals that have offspring only every few years (e.g., elephants, dolphins), making them very vulnerable to overexploitation

The Bushmeat Trade

Subsistence hunting moving to regional markets in the tropics, leading to rapid defaunation of tropical forests

Tiger population contrast

There are more tigers in the USA (~5,000) than left in the wild in Asia (3,000-4,000)

US role in wildlife trade

Second largest importer of wildlife products and a large destination for the illegal pet trade and African bushmeat

Marine overexploitation status

75% of world fish stocks are overfished, fully fished, depleted, or recovering

Fishing down the food web

Starting by harvesting big fish, then moving onto smaller fish as large ones decline

Atlantic cod decline

Experienced a 99% population decline due to factory trawlers targeting them for high-value parts like swim bladders

The Cove / Taiji (Japan)

Dolphins captured for aquariums or slaughtered for meat (often sold as "whale meat"), which is heavily laced with mercury

Global fish stock prediction (2006 study)

Predicted a total collapse of the world fish stock within 40 years

Market hunting

people hunting to sell for food/fashion for money

Bounties on predators

you had to have a bounty to hunt predatory animals

All of the different eras

Before Man: 11,500 B.P.

0-1500 Pre European Era

1500-1850 Era of Abundance

1900 Era of Overexploitation

1930 Era of Protection

1930-1966 Era of Game Management

1966-1979 Era of Environmental Management 

Current Era of Conservation Biology

Era of expolitation figures

Charles Darwin, Henry David Thoreau

Rachel carson

Wrote the silent spring book during the era of game management