Wildlife and Wildlife Management Notes

Defining Wildlife

  • Initially defined as 'game' in British law (1639), influencing U.S. game laws.
  • Congress definition: any member of the animal kingdom.
  • The Wildlife Society: free-ranging animals of major significance to man (often terrestrial and aquatic vertebrates).
  • Working definition: Any free-ranging (non-domesticated) animal species in natural environments.

Why Manage Wildlife?

  • Humans impact wildlife, and wildlife can impact humans.
  • Objectives:
    • Protect & restore biological communities & ecosystem functions.
    • Maintain genetic diversity and viable population sizes.
    • Prevent species extinction.
    • Biological community: all biotic components of an area.
    • Ecosystem: all biotic and abiotic components and their interactions.
    • Ecosystem function: interactions between biotic and abiotic components.

U.S. Wildlife Management

  • Authority: state or federal government, with help from NGOs and private entities.
  • Wildlife Management Triad: Wildlife, Habitat, Humans.

Wildlife Management Decisions

  • Classification: taxonomic to political.
  • Categories: Traditional Game Species, Nongame Species, Furbearers, Predators, Migratory Species, Urban Wildlife, Threatened or Endangered Species.

Threatened or Endangered Species

  • U.S. Endangered Species Act of 1973: Federal protection for listed species.
  • IUCN Red List categories: Evaluated species are classified based on risk of extinction.

Management

  • Early hunting: Subsistence, unregulated, led to extinctions.
  • Teddy Roosevelt: Pioneered applied wildlife management, emphasized research and informed decisions.

Categories of Management

  • Inactive Management: No direct manipulation, monitoring.
  • Active Management: Direct manipulation of population.

Types of Active Management

  • Habitat manipulation.
  • Provide supplemental resources.
  • Habitat restoration.
  • Removal of unwanted vegetation or attractants.

Active vs. Inactive Management

  • Active:
    • Increase population size (threatened or endangered species).
    • Decrease population size (exotic/invasive, overabundant).
    • Maintain/sustain population size (sustainable harvest).
  • Inactive:
    • Monitor with no management.

Goals of Wildlife Management

  • Increase, reduce, or sustain population numbers; monitor.
  • Purpose: Protect communities & ecosystems, maintain diversity, prevent extinctions.
  • Implementation: wildlife science and public input.