**Historical Development of Wildlife Management:**
– Game laws were established to regulate the killing of fish and wild animals.
– The Game Act of 1831 in England protected game birds.
– Early game laws in the US included measures like closing deer hunting seasons.
– Regulations historically focused on hunting restrictions rather than population sizes.
– The late 19th century saw the emergence of wildlife conservation legislation.
**Foundations and Evolution of Wildlife Conservation:**
– Landmark laws like the Sea Birds Preservation Act of 1869 marked the beginning of nature protection.
– Key organizations such as the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds and the National Trust were established for wildlife preservation.
– Notable figures like Charles Rothschild played a pioneering role in wildlife conservation.
– The establishment of institutions like the Wildlife Society in the 1930s marked the professionalization of wildlife management.
– Journals like the Journal of Wildlife Management began publishing in the 1930s to disseminate scientific knowledge.
**Types and Approaches in Wildlife Management:**
– Manipulative management involves altering population numbers through changes in food supply, habitat, predators, or disease prevalence.
– Custodial management aims to minimize external influences on populations and habitats.
– Wildlife management practices vary in national parks, conservation of threatened species, and addressing visitor interactions.
– The subjective views of landowners on population density may conflict with animal welfare interests.
– Considerations like discouraging feeding animals by visitors are essential in wildlife management.
**Challenges and Opposition in Wildlife Management:**
– Criticisms from animal rights activists regarding the cruelty of wildlife control methods.
– Disapproval of killing animals for ecosystem preservation while not accepting the same for humans.
– Opposition to hunting deemed unnecessary or harmful to biodiversity.
– Concerns about maintaining artificially inflated game animal populations without ecological integrity.
– Environmentalists’ concerns about deliberate breeding for profit and maintaining game animal populations.
**Regulation and Practices in Wildlife Management:**
– Management of hunting seasons involves studies, lobbying, and guidelines set by organizations like the US Fish and Wildlife Service.
– Legal hunting periods, limited entry through lottery systems, and closed seasons for wildlife protection are essential regulations.
– Considerations for the type of weapon used in hunting based on conservation principles and game characteristics.
– Definitions, scopes, and practices in wildlife management by various experts and researchers.
– Ethical considerations and controversies in wildlife management, including perspectives on hunting, environmental impacts, and ethical dilemmas.
The examples and perspective in this article deal primarily with the United States and the United Kingdom and do not represent a worldwide view of the subject. (January 2023) |
Wildlife management is the management process influencing interactions among and between wildlife, its habitats and people to achieve predefined impacts. It attempts to balance the needs of wildlife with the needs of people using the best available science. Wildlife management can include wildlife conservation, gamekeeping and pest control. Wildlife management draws on disciplines such as mathematics, chemistry, biology, ecology, climatology and geography to gain the best results.
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Wildlife management aims to halt the loss in the Earth's biodiversity, by taking into consideration ecological principles such as carrying capacity, disturbance and succession, and environmental conditions such as physical geography, pedology and hydrology. Most wildlife biologists are concerned with the conservation and improvement of habitats; although rewilding is increasingly being undertaken. Techniques can include reforestation, pest control, nitrification and denitrification, irrigation, coppicing and hedge laying.
Gamekeeping is the management or control of wildlife for the well-being of game and may include the killing of other animals which share the same niche or predators to maintain a high population of more profitable species, such as pheasants introduced into woodland. In his 1933 book Game Management, Aldo Leopold, one of the Western pioneers of wildlife management as a science, defined it as "the art of making land produce sustained annual crops of wild game for recreational use".
Pest control is the control of real or perceived pests and can be used for the benefit of wildlife, farmers, gamekeepers or human safety. In the United States, wildlife management practices are often implemented by a governmental agency to uphold a law, such as the Endangered Species Act.
In the United Kingdom, wildlife management is undertaken by several organizations including government bodies such as the Forestry Commission, Charities such as the RSPB and The Wildlife Trusts and privately hired gamekeepers and contractors. Legislation has also been passed to protect wildlife such as the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981. The UK government also give farmers subsidies through the Countryside Stewardship Scheme to improve the conservation value of their farms.