Wildlife Management (FW-4003-001) Final Exam Study Guide

How did the N. American model originate?​

• Response to existing issues​

  • Overconsumption​

  • Ownership by aristocracy​

• Societal shift towards conservation​

What are the "seven sisters" of wildlife conservation?​

1. Wildlife resources are conserved and held in trust for all citizens​

2. Commerce in dead wildlife is eliminated​

3. Wildlife is allocated according to democratic rule of law​

4. Wildlife may only be killed for a legitimate, non-frivolous purpose​

5. Wildlife is an international resource​

6. Every person has an equal opportunity under law to participate in hunting and fishing​

7. Scientific management is the proper means for wildlife conservation​

What are the 3 basic approaches to wildlife management? (+ examples)​

• Preservation – allow nature to take its course w/o human influence ​

  • No interference whatsoever​

• Direct manipulation – animals are trapped, shot, stocked, etc​

  • Reintroducing native species into a habitat​

• Indirect manipulation – alteration to habitat​

  • Controlled burns​

Give a brief overview of the history of wildlife management​

• Historically animals in their natural state were considered to be nobody's property​

  • Landowners could collect wildlife if it was on their property​

• Prior to 1960s, wildlife management was "game management​

  • Focused mostly on husbandry and animals hunted for sport​

• Recent increase in focus on non-game animals​

What were the precursors to the USFWS?​

• U.S. Commission on Fish and Fisheries​

  • 1871​

  • Created in response to declining fishery stocks​

  • Established the first National Fish Hatchery​

• Division of Economic Ornithology and Mammalogy​

  • 1885​

  • Determined the geographic distribution of plants and animals in the U.S​

Give an overview of the Boone and Crockett Club​

• Oldest wildlife conservation organization in N. America​

  • Co-founded by Teddy Roosevelt​

• Initiator of several early National Parks​

• Established fair chase​

Give an overview of the Sierra Club​

• Started as an organization to explore and protect California'sSierra Nevada mounts​

  • Co-founded by John Muir​

• Expanded chapters across the U.S, shifting focus to broader national and global environmental issues

Who was John Muir?

• Early activist who believed in preserving wilderness in its unaltered state

• Influential writer and critical to the creation of national parks

• Founder Sierra Club

Who was Theodore Roosevelt?

• 26th U.S. Present

  • “The Conservation President”

• Protected 230 million acres of land from the public domain

• Created:

  • National Wildlife Refuge System

  • U.S. Forest Service

  • Arkansas National Forest (later Ouachita National Forest)

• Associated with National Parks, but wasn’t president when NPS was established

What was wildlife management like in the late 1800s?

• Consistent primarily of adding restrictions to existing hunting regulations:

  • season lengths shortened

  • bag limits decrease

  • “old school” hunting methods banned

What is the Lacey Act?

• 1900

• Prohibits shipment and sale of animals taken in violation of federal or state laws

What was the Federal Bird Reservation?

• 1903

• Prevent habitat destruction and provide safe haven for birds

  • Pelican Island, Florida

• Evolved into the National Wildlife Refuge System

Describe the U.S. Forest Service

• 1905

• Sustains the health, diversity, and productivity of the nation’s forests and grasslands for present and future generations

Describe the National Park Service

• 1916

• Preserves natural and cultural resources for the enjoyment, education, and inspiration of this and future generations

Who was Gifford Pinchot?

• First chief of the U.S. Forest Service

• Founder of the Society of American Foresters

• Established “wise use” as a key principle of early wildlife management:

  • “Greatest good for the greatest number for the longest time.”

Describe the Migratory Bird Treaty Act

• 1918

• Ended market hunting of birds

  • Made it illegal for people to “take” migratory birds, their eggs, feathers, or nests

Describe the Duck Stamp Act

• 1934

• 98 cents of every dollar generated by the selling of Federal Duck Stamps are used to acquire habitat for waterfowl

Describe the Pittman-Robertson Act

• 1937

• 10% tax on sales of arms and ammunition

  • Funding for conservation and research

• Both hunters and non-hunters (+ game and non-game) benefit

Who was Aldo Leopold?

• The founding father of the field of wildlife management

• Wrote “Game Management”

• Co-founded the Wildlife Society

Who was Rachel Carson?

• Wrote “Silent Spring” — helped user in the modern environmental movement

Describe the Wilderness Act

• 1964

• Legally defined wilderness as “an area where the earth and its community of life are untrammeled by man, where man himself is a visitor who does not remain.”

Describe the Land and Water Conservation Fund

• 1964

• Safeguards natural areas and water resources to provide recreation opportunities

Describe the Wild and Scenic Rivers Act

• 1968

• Protects rivers from development and protects water quality

• Established National Wild and Scenic Rivers Systems

  • Wild — inaccessible via trail, primitive shorelines

  • Scenic — accessible in places by roads

  • Recreational — easily accessible, some shoreline development

• Buffalo River was the first to get special Congressional designation as a “National River”

Describe the Marine Mammal Protection Act

• 1972

  • Ban on taking (hunting, capturing, harassing) and importing marine mammals

Describe the Endangered Species Act

• 1973

• Primary law protecting imperiled plants and animals from extinction

• Provides mechanisms to list species, conserve their habitats, and implement recovery plans

Define environment

• The biotic and abiotic surrounding of an organism

Define population

• A group of individuals of the same species that occupy a defined area; usually isolated from other groups of the same species

Define community

• Association of populations of interacting organisms

Define ecotone

• The boundary or transition zone between adjacent communities

  • Abrupt or gradual

Define ecology

• Study of interrelationships between organisms and their environment

Define population ecology

• Study of processes that determine size and structure of populations

Define community ecology

• Study of processes which determine the structure and stability. of interacting populations

Describe community structure

• Communities generally have a few common species with high densities and many rare species with low densities

• Species that predominate are ecological dominants

Define an ecosystem

• Communities interacting with each other and their physical environment

  • Link between living and nonliving produces:

    • Energy flow through the ecosystem

    • Nutrient cycling

What are the components of an ecosystem?

• Energy flow

  • Gross Primary Productivity

  • Net Primary Productivity

• Consumers

• Trophic levels

• Food chains / Food webs

• Nutrient Cycling

Define Gross Primary Productivity (GPP)

• Total energy assimilated by autotrophs

Define Net Primary Productivity (NPP)

• Amount of energy stored as organic matter after respiration

  • Declines with latitude

  • Increases with precipitation

  • Increases with nutrients

What are the components of trophic levels?

• Primary producers — plants

• Primary consumers — feeds on plants

• Secondary consumers — feeds on primary consumers

• Tertiary consumers — feeds on primary consumers, secondary consumers

About how much energy/heat is lost between each tropic level?

> %10

Define a food web

• Network of interconnected food chains of a community

Define nutrient cycling

• The movement of nutrients such as carbon, nitrogen, and phosphorous through the abiotic and biotic components of an ecosystem

  • Nutrients are retained within an ecosystem

  • Recycled between organisms and the physical environment

What role to detritivores play in nutrient cycling?

• Detritivores are organisms which feed on nonliving items and break them down into nutrients

  • Nutrients (rather than light) often limit productivity of an ecosystem

  • Ecosystem with few detritivores will have lower productivity levels

Describe/draw out the carbon cycle

Describe/draw out the nitrogen cycle

Describe/draw out the phosphorous cycle

What makes up an ecosystem?

• Sunlight

• Different trophic levels

• Food webs

• Nutrient cycling

Define niche

• The suite of environmental conditions in which an organism can survive and reproduce

  • Niches are multidimensional

    • Temperature, moisture, sunlight

Define fundamental niche

• Range of conditions and resources under which a species can survive and reproduce if free from interference from other species

  • The ideal niche — in an ideal world where they would survive

Define realized niche

• Portion of fundamental niche actually used as a result of interactions with other species

  • More realistic inche — where they survive and reproduce

What is the competitive exclusion principle?

• Two species with identical niches cannot coexist indefinitely in the same area

What is niche overlap? What does is lead to?

• Leads to resource partitioning

• When two or more organisms use a portion of same resource simultaneously

• Competition may force species to restrict their use of space, range, of food, etc

What is an ecological equivalent? + example

• Unrelated species occupying similar niches in different communities or areas

  • Kangaroos in Australia and bison in North America

What are some the characteristics of wildlife populations?

• Abundance

• Density

• Recruitment rate

• Birth rate

• Mortality rate

• Survival rate

• Longevity

• Dispersal rate

• Age structure

• Sex ratio

• Mating systems

Describe birth rate

• = per capita birth rate

  • # live births / female / unit time

Example

• A population of 20 northern bobwhite (10 females) produce 140 chicks in 1 year

  • Birth rate — 140 / 10 = 14 chicks/female/year

What factors affect birth rate?

• Clutch or litter size

• Number of clutches / litters per female / unit time

• Sex ratio and mating system

• Behavior

  • Dominance and suppression of breeding systems

• Population density

  • Negative association growth rate, except at low densities

Define fecundity

• # of eggs produced / female / year

  • Or, in mammals: # of offspring born / female / year

Define fertility

• % of eggs that are fertile

What are age specific fertility rates?

• Shifts in age structure to more fecund portions of the population can alter birth rates

• Age-specific birth rates generally increase with age of female up to some asymptote determined by habitat quality, population density, and physiological constraints

  • In some long-lived vertebrates, age-specific birth rates decline in old rate

Describe recruitment rate

• Rate at which individuals enter the breeding portion of a population (through maturation and immigration)

Example

• Of 140 bobwhite chicks, 20 survive to breed and 3 immigrate to the area

  • Recruitment rate — 23 / year

Describe mortality rate

• # of deaths / # of individuals / year

• Mortality is an additive process (you only die once) whereas fertility tends to be multiplicative (you can reproduce more than once)

Example

• Of 140 bobwhite chicks, 20 survive to breed the next year

  • Mortality rate — 120 / 140 = 0.86

Describe survival rate

• # survive / # individuals / year

  • Alternatively, the number of deaths can be used to calculate survival rate

Example

• Of 140 bobwhite chicks, 20 survive to breed the next year

  • Survival rate — 20 / 140 = 0.14

Describe survivorship curves

• Type I — generally found in vertebrates with extensive maternal care

• Type II — characteristic of smaller organisms, size doesn’t change much with age

• Type III — found in organisms with high fecundity (per capita egg production) and high juvenile mortality

Describe longevity + the types of longevity

• The average lifespan of a population member

  • Physiological longevity — lifespan of individuals under ideal conditions

  • Ecological longevity — average lifespan under natural conditions

Describe dispersal rate

• Per capita movement of individuals into (immigration) or out of (emmigration) the population per unit time

Describe age structure

• Distribution of individuals of various ages within a population

Describe sex ratios + types

• Ratio of males to females

  • Primary sex ratio — sex ratio at fertilization (almost always 50:50)

  • Secondary sex ratio — sex ratio at birth

  • Tertiary sex ratio — sex ratio of juveniles (post-weaning)

  • Quaternary sex ratio — sex ratio of adults

Describe mating systems

• Monogamous species — balanced sex ratios needed for maximum production

• Polygynous species — males are expendable because several females are bred by one male

What is instantaneous growth rate?

• Breeding occurs continuously (r)

  • Continuous growth

  • Falls around 0

  • Nt = N0e^rt

What is finite growth rate?

• Breeding occurs at discrete times (λ)

  • Discrete growth

  • Falls around 1

Under what circumstances could a population grow exponentially?

• Unlimited resources

Draw a exponential growth curve

Draw a logistic growth curve

What is the equation for logistic growth?

What is population growth determined by?

• Biotic potential

• Size of the population

• Environmental resistance

Draw a maximum sustainable yield curve

Equation to convert r to λ

Equation to convert λ to r

Describe maximum sustained yield (MSY)

• The largest number of animals that can be harvested continuously from a population while maintaining stable population levels

Setting harvest regulations based on MSY and logistic growth assumes:

• Rate of increase responds immediately to changes in population density

• Age and sex structure of population is stable

• Harvest spread equally through population

Describe optimum sustained yield

• The number of animals that can be harvested from a population that accounts for biological potential of the population (r), as well as human demands

Mortality for game species is usually:

• Natural (sickness, old age, predation)

• Hunting

Define additive mortality

• Mortality from two sources

  • When natural and harvest mortality are independent, OR,

  • Two types of natural mortality (predation + disease)

Define compensatory mortality

• When hunting morality replaces natural mortality

  • Survival, reproduction, or movement into a population increases, thereby reducing the effects of harvest mortality on population growth

Is hunting mortality compensatory or additive?

• Compensatory to a certain threshold

  • Once that threshold is exceeded, hunting becomes additive

Give an example if density dependent factors

• Less food will cause animals to die, but those same animals will likely have died anyway — so no additional losses

  • Acts in a compensatory way

Give an example if density independent factors

• Floods, or lighting strike will kill animals regardless of how many are in a population, or how many get eaten by predations

  • Acts in an additive way

What determines annual surpluses?

• Natality

• Mortality

If there is high biotic potential (high population turnover), harvestable surplus is determined by:

• Rate of reproduction

• Survival of juveniles up to harvest

If there is low biotic potential (low population turnover), harvestable surplus is determined by:

• Number of breeders at the start of each breeding season

What are methods used to determine population abundance?

• Census — complete count of the population

• Estimate — based on a statistical sample of the population

• Index — doesn’t estimate abundance, but allows comparison of relative abundance among areas or times

What are the types of condition indices?

• Population-condition indices

• Habitat-condition indices

Describe population-condition indices

• Measures the well-being of population members in terms of physical condition of individuals

  • Ex: gross appearance, body fat

    • KFI — ratio of weight of kidney fat : kidney w/o fat

Describe habitat-condition indices

• Stream surveys

  • Different variables are assessed and ranks, and used to rank the disturbance level of streams

• Browse surveys

  • Survey plants within deer reach — count browsed tips vs unbrowsed tips

    • Plant palatability score is developed for different species

What are the types of life tables?

• Cohort (dynamic) life table — group of individuals followed from birth to death

• Time-specific (static) life table — sample a population to get distribution of age classes during that time period

What are life tables used for?

• Shows the relationship between birth and death rates

• Used to identify the “weakest link” in a population

• Model future changes

• Generate survivorship and mortality curves

• When combined with natality information, you can calculate λ

What is net reproductive rate?

• R0 —> net reproductive rate

  • Sensitive to age at reproduction

• If R0 = 1 — birth rate = death rate

• If R0 > 1 — population increasing

• If R0 < 1 — population decreasing

What are the current trends in hunting in the U.S.? What are the reasons for those trends?

• Numbers of hunters are decreasing

  • Urbanization

  • Aging society

  • Less access

  • Less opportunity

What does the Kellert survey show?

• 29% of Americans object strongly to hunting, especially women and urbanites

• Most anti-hunters had not raised animals or been associated with farms or farmers

• Of those surveyed, anti-hunters were among the least knowledgeable about animals

What are the two basic attitudes among anti-hunters?

• Humanistic

• Moralisitc

How can wildlife resources be managed in light of divergent attitudes?

• Education regarding “ecologistic” attitude as a means of creating a common ground between hunters and anti-hunters

  • Improved hunter ethics

  • Recognition of multiple attitudes and uses of wildlife