Wildlife Management

Mr. Goggins

What is wildlife?

• -Any animal, plant, that is not domesticated.

• “The practical ecology of all vertebrates and their plant and animal associates”

Wildlife Management

• “Application of ecological knowledge to wildlife populations in a manner that strikes a balance between the needs of those population and the needs of people (Bolen and Robinson 2003)

Wildlife Categories

• Game Species

• Non-game species

• Endangered and threatened species

• Nuisance species

• Fish

Wildlife Management

• 3 basic approaches– Preservation– Direct manipulation– Indirect manipulation

History of Wildlife Management

• 1800’s- Hunting restrictions

• 1933- Aldo Leopold published Game Management

• 1937-Congress Passed Pittman-Roberson Act.

• 1960’s- New public perspective & expectations

Neglect and Exploitation

• -Market Hunting

Neglect and Exploitation

• Passanger Pigeon – Most numerous bird on earth (1800’s)– Extinct in a little over 100 years (last died 1941)– Human Hunting

• Labrador Duck – Extinct in 1875– Loss of habitat

Neglect and Exploitation

• Caroline Parakeet – Extinct in 1914– Human hunting and habitat loss

• Great auk – Extinct in 1844– Hunted/ trapped for meat, feathers & eggs

• Hawaiian Rail – Extinct in 1940– Went extinct do to loss of habitat

Problems of Excess

• Raindeer– 1944 – 24 cows 5 bulls– 1963 – 6000 on island– 1964 – 42 on island

• Mule Deer

• White-tailed Deer

• Winter roosting birds of various species

Success Stories

• Wood ducks

• Wild turkey (catch and release)

• Bison– 1860 – 60 million in America– 1889 – 150 in America– 1894 – last free range bison killed

Important people in Conservation

Aldo Leopold

• “Father of wildlife management”

• 1st wildlife management professor

• Founded wildlife society

Theodore Roosevelt

• The conservation minded president

• Founded 1st wildlife refuge 1903

• Founded boon and crocket club

Gifford Pinchot

• Americas 1st forester

• Helped create the national forest survive

John Muir

• “The father of our National parks”

• Invented 1st alarm clock

• Convinced congress to set aside land for the national parks

• Founded Siear club

John James Audubon

• Naturalist and a painter

• Most known for “birds of North America”

J.N. “Ding” Darling

• A famous cartoonist

• Conservation & politics main passion

• 1st head of U.S. Fish & wildlife

• Started the “duck stamp”