Download (2003) - Ch 2 - Neglect and Exploitation

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Wildlife Biology
Revised 26 August 2009
Bolen and Robinson (2003) - Ch. 2 -- Neglect and Exploitation
In the Beginning -- read; "have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the fowl of the air, and
over every living thing that moveth upon the Earth" -- in the past, humans have often taken it for
granted that we have the "right" to conquer nature...
- the modern view is much different
- read about market hunting of robins, shorebirds, waterfowl (especially along eastern seaboard)
- used "punt guns" mounted on boats - like a small cannon - could kill lots of birds with one shot;
no regulations
- some birds exploited for plumage - e.g., trumpeter swans (many killed during breeding season - so
it was a bigger loss); egrets
- Migratory Bird Treaty in 1916 and Migratory Bird Treaty Act in 1918 - helped stop the excess
destruction -- it ended the market hunting for waterfowl
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Bison -- read about the near extinction and slow recovery
- a bill to protect bison was enacted by Congress in 1874, but President Grant vetoed it
- last free-ranging bison killed in 1894 by rancher in Park County Colorado (there were still a few
on public lands, like Yellowstone National Park)
- Bison bonasus - European bison - last free-roaming one in the wilds of Bialowieza Forest (in
Poland) was shot in 1921 (people were starving during WWI and some were poached in this forest);
there are still a few left today (raised from captive stock, I believe)
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The Passenger Pigeon: An American Tragedy -- read (and know) about their natural history and extinction
- last one died in Cincinnati Zoo in 1914
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Others, Too, Are Gone -- Labrador duck - last one shot in fall of 1875 on Long Island; diving duck found along Atlantic
coast of N. America (Labrador south to Delaware River in winter); had specialized bills- indicated
special diets; changes in marine environments might have influenced decline, but they don't really
know the true cause of the extinction
- heath hen (a type of eastern prairie grouse) - last live
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one seen on 11 March 1932 (at Martha's Vineyard); overhunting, predation, disease, habitat
destruction (by fire), poaching, and a sex ratio favoring males all contributed to its decline
- Carolina parakeet - last authentic record - in 1914 - last one died in Cincinnati Zoo (like
passenger pigeon); associated with heavily timbered bottomlands mainly associated with rivers and
swamps in the SE US; it was the only member of the parrot family that lived in the US; numbers
declined with loss of forests due to logging, but overhunting and pest control by farmers (parakeets
ate orchard fruits) contributed mainly to the decline
- great auk - died out about 1944; was a flightless penguin living on the coast and islands of the
North Atlantic; hunted and trapped for meat, eggs, and feathers
- Hawaiian rail - a marsh bird; exterminated when rats were introduced accidently to the island by
humans
- extinction does also happen by natural causes, but most of recent extinctions are related to
negative human impact
- according to Curry-Lindahl (1972), 173 species and subspecies of birds (all kinds of birds
combined) have become extinct in historic times; of these, 157 have disappeared since 1700 AD
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Wood Ducks, Wild Turkeys, and Other Near Extinctions -- wood duck - cavity nester; putting up artificial nest boxes helped numbers come back; they
needed wooded wetlands; overhunting and draining of wetlands contributed to their decreasing
numbers
- wild turkey - coming back; reintroduced in a number of places, but sometimes they have not
used genetic stock that could live in that particular area; turkeys need mature forests
Read:
- California condor
- peregrine falcon
- Kirtland's warbler
- Indiana bat
- timber wolf
- black-footed ferrets
- throughout world, 290 species of mammals and 388 species of birds are endangered
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Problems of Excess -- Reindeer, Deer, and Blackbirds -- 24 cows and 5 bulls of reindeer were introduced onto St. Matthew Island in Bering Sea in 1944;
by 1963, they expanded to 6000 animals and overgrazed the lichens; most died due to starvation
the following winter
- mule deer of the Kaibab Plateau of Arizona - often cited study; population supposedly grew
greatly when predators in the area were eliminated and hunting was stopped; then deer population
crashed
- crash was supposedly due to overgrazing; some people now think, however, that it was not so
clearcut as formerly believed; they think maybe numbers of deer were not counted properly (some
were estimated only) and also changing land use in the area might have had an effect
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- read about other deer examples
- too many elk in Yellowstone National Park
- read about blackbirds- damage lots of crops when they congregate in high numbers; different
control measures used (spray detergents on feathers on cold nights, distress calls, noise makers,
Avitrol?):
- red-winged black birds
- starlings
- grackles
- cowbirds
Predator Control: Bounties, Baits, and Blunders -- William Hornaday wrote a book, Our Vanishing Wildlife (1913), which did a lot to get the public
interested in wildlife; however, Hornaday pushed the idea of killing all predators in this book and
helped to give predators a bad name
- wolves, foxes, weasels, crows had a bounty on them - started mainly in the 1930's and continued
for a long time
- lots of bounties and bounty fraud (e.g., porcupine nose was worth money, so people took feet and
punched holes in them to get 5 "noses" per porcupine; other frauds - dog ears instead of coyote
ears; transporting carcasses across state lines, etc.
- overall data show that, in most cases, predator control does not usually increase numbers of the
prey animals; often, predator control doesn't even appreciably decrease the predator population
(because other factors take over - like increased survivorship of those not killed, maybe higher
reproductive rates, etc.)
- some methods of control include: strychnine, compound 1080, zinc phosphate, trapping, dendigging, cyanide guns, shooting, etc. (many poisons are now banned)
- in 1970, President Nixon appointed a select committee of wildlife biologists to study coyote
control; they found control did not really work and nontarget animals were killed (e.g., badgers);
based on this study, in 1972, Executive Order banned any further use of poisons on federal lands
Exotic Wildlife -- ring-necked pheasants - from Asia
- brown trout - from Europe
- big game farms in Texas (featuring African ungulates)
- starlings – Europe
- spotted knapweed - Europe
- house sparrows – Europe
- purple loosestrife - Eurasia
- brown rats – Europe
- European rabbits-into Australia
- leafy spurge - Europe