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Critical Thinking Skills
• First, need to differentiate between beliefs
and knowledge
• Process:
1) Gather complete information
2) Question the methods, conclusions,
sources of study
3) Tolerate some level of uncertainty
4) Look at the Big Picture
Scientific Method
Reject
Fail to Reject
"A thing is right when it tends to preserve the
integrity, stability, and beauty of the biotic
community. It is wrong when it tends
otherwise. ...To keep every cog and wheel is
the first precaution to intelligent tinkering."
(Aldo Leopold, champion of conservation &
father of wildlife biology)
“In short, a land ethic changes the role of Homo
sapiens from conqueror of the land-community
to plain member and citizen of it. It implies
respect for his [her] fellow-members, and also
respect for the community as such.”
Aldo Leopold
History of Wildlife Management
Making way for
“modern”
wildlife species
History of Wildlife Management
• Humans colonize N.A. –
Quaternary Period,
Pleistocene Epoch
– ice ages 13,000 ybp
- evidence for 50,000 ybp
History of Wildlife Management
• Large mammal extinctions (exploitation?)
= 66% of megafauna extinct
History of Wildlife Management
• American Indians
• wildlife
• fire
History of Wildlife Management
• 500 ybp, Europeans
arrive….
• Spanish bring
horses, livestock
History of Wildlife Management
• 500 ybp, Europeans
arrive….
• Other Europeans
exploit fisheries,
fur, meat,
feathers….
(1870-1915)
History of Wildlife Management
• Fur trade & near extinction of beaver
(Castor canadensis)
History of Wildlife Management
• Market hunting
• Near extinction of bison : 60M to ~150
History of Wildlife Management
• Market hunting
• Bison
• Successful extinction of passenger pigeon
- immense abundance (400 km long, 1800)
History of Wildlife Management
• Passenger pigeon
- immense
abundance (400
km long, 1800)
- 1878 – 3 months,
1.5 M pigeons
from MI to
market
History of Wildlife Management
• Passenger pigeon
- last sighting 1899
- 14-yr old boy shot
last wild pigeon in
Ohio (1900)
- last captive pigeon
died:
Male (1912)
Female (1914)
History of Wildlife Management
• Habitat loss & Exploitation
History of Wildlife Management
• Habitat loss & Exploitation
Or is it gone?
History of Wildlife Management
Or is it gone?
http://www.birds.cornell.edu/ivory/multimedia/vi
os/index_html
http://www.birds.cornell.edu/ivory/multimedia/so
ds
History of Wildlife Management
• U.S. policy
• Manifest Destiny
• Land Rush
• Agricultural
Development
History of Wildlife Management
• Fear of losing species at such fast rates
(especially game species)…..birth of
modern wildlife conservation movement…
Modern Wildlife Management
• Aldo Leopold
– wrote Sand County
Almanac
– wrote Game
Management
– 1st university
wildlife program
(UW-Madison)
– Land Ethic
April 22, 1970
Recent Epoch (~0.01 Mybp present)
– historic time
– green & industrial
revolutions
– rapid loss of biodiversity
*Largest extinction event?
Our Insatiable Appetite for
Energy
Guild Concept
• guild = group of species that exploit the
same class of resources in similar way
• community guild = no taxonomic
restrictions; guild members chosen
based on investigator-defined
resources
• assemblage guild = guild members
based on taxonomic relations
Habitat
• An area supporting a particular type of
vegetation (habitat type)
• An area with the combination of resources
and environmental conditions that allows a
species (or population) to occupy, survive
and reproduce
– habitat quality as relative term
Habitat Quality
• Good habitat means there are higher
densities of a species compared to Poor
habitat…….Right!?
• Not necessarily….Van Horne (1983) pointed
out that animal density may not be the most
accurate measure of habitat quality.
• Quality relates more to vital rates (survival
and reproduction), vitality of offspring,
temporal nature
Habitat
• Habitat from an evolutionary perspective
• Species distribution relative to habitat
dist’n
• Climatic events
• Pleistocene Epoch & dist’n of modern
species
• Evolutionary underpinnings
• Adaptation & Evolution for habitat
Behavior is
Important!
Concept of Habitat Selection
• Wildlife perceiving correct configuration of habitat
needed for survival – differences based on
age/experience/chance? – hierarchy to decision process
• Niche concept (time/place/functional role) &
habitat selection
Hutchison’s n-dimensional hypervolume
Concept of Habitat Selection
• Hutchison = n-dimensional hypervolume as
explanation of the niche
• Fundamental vs. Realized Niche
Species 1
Species 2
Testing the Hutchinsonian Niche
Concept of Habitat Selection
• James – work with birds in
Arkansas…quantified habitat relationships
• How do birds select habitat?
• niche gestalt : each species has characteristic
perceptual world…responds to that world as
organized whole … search image concept
• How do we (as wildlife biologists) “see”
through the eyes of wildlife species?
Scale Dependence
of Habitat Selection
1st Order
2nd Order
3rd Order
4th Order
Macrohabitat
vs.
Microhabitat
Habitat Selection
Proximate Factors
*Immediate
context
*Predation
*Competition
*Abiotic factors
vs.
Ultimate Factors
*Evolutionary
context
*Fitness relations
Human Resource Use
Human Values & Attitudes
(Socio-political)
*Naturally patchy distribution of resources
*Heterogeneity supports greater diversity right!?
habitat interspersion –
Leopold’s Law of Interspersion
Managing for Biodiversity
Paradigm of Wildlife Biology &
Conservation Biology
Human-induced
“heterogeneity”
Land-use Trends:
Private vs. Public
Human Land Use Practices
1) Agriculture
2) Suburban Development
Let’s pick on Indiana:
•
•
97% of land in state = privatelyowned
In central Indiana,
• 70+% of land in row crop
• <10% in forest
• Urban sprawl intensifying
Intensive Agriculture
&
Clean Farming
Timber Extraction
&
Fragmentation
Formation of
Terrestrial “Islands”
Oceanic Island = Terrestrial Island ?????
Important Wildlife Legislation
1900 Lacey Act – no interstate commerce
1918 Migratory Bird Treaty Act
1934 Fish & Wildlife Coordination Act – federal
assistance
1934 Migratory Bird Hunting Stamp Act – duck
stamp revenue for habitat purchase
1937 Federal Aid in Wildlife Restoration Act –
Pittman-Robertson Act (P-R funds)
1956 Fish & Wildlife Act – set up US Fish &
Wildlife Service
Important Wildlife Legislation
1964 Wilderness Act
1969 National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA)
1973 Endangered Species Act – federal action for
recovery & mgt
1974 Convention on International Trade in
Endangered Species of Wild Fauna & Flora
(CITES) – import/export regulation
1976 Federal Land Policy & Mgt Act – BLM &
land use plans
1976 National Forest Mgt Act (NFMA) – USFS &
forest mgt plans
Important Wildlife Legislation
1980 Fish & Wildlife Conservation Act – P-R funds
to nongame research & mgt
1980 National Forest Mgt Act (NFMA) – USFS &
forest mgt plans
1985 Food Security Act – Farm Bill Provisions
- Conservation Reserve Program (CRP)
CREP (enhancement)
- Wetland Reserve Program (WRP)
- Wildlife Habitat Incentives Program (WHIP)
2001 Conservation & Reinvestment Act (CARA)
Importance of Management
• Finite natural resources (land, water,
wildlife, fuel, etc…)
• Future generations inherit our world
Managing for Biodiversity
Biodiversity
• Genetic diversity and:
• evolution
• reproduction
• adaptation
• disease
Biodiversity
• Species Diversity and:
• Evolution
• Community stability
• Predator-prey relations (keystone
predators)
• Umbrella species
Biodiversity
• Ecosystem Diversity and:
• Evolution
• Flow of Energy & Nutrients
• Disturbance & change
Types of Management
1) Manage Populations
• Protect species
• Remove individuals by exploitation
• Re-establish species
• Add to population from captive source
• Control predators and/or diseases
• Artificial feeding
Types of Management
2) Manage People
• Law enforcement
• Public relations
• Control access and/or use
• Education
Types of Management
3) Manage Habitat
• Maintain habitat
• Improve habitat
“Land” to Manage
2.3 billion acres in U.S.
741 million acres in public ownership
- 336 MA = BLM
- 189 MA = USFS
- 86 MA = USFWS
- 68 MA = NPS
- 13 MA = U.S. Army
“Land” to Manage in Michigan
36.4 million acres in Michigan
6.9+ million acres in public ownership
- 2.8 MA = USFS
- 93,000 A = USFWS
- 140,000 A = NPS
- 3.8 MA = State Forests
Ways to Manage
1) Featured Species Mgt
– single species
– particular purpose
– e.g., white-tailed deer
– could also include “umbrella species” and
“flagship species”
Ways to Manage
2) Species Richness Mgt
– maintain diversity and certain # of each
species (follow MVP concept)
3) Indicator Species Mgt
– use a species (or group of species) to
monitor environmental conditions
– not necessarily managing for these spp.
– bioindicators, biosentinels, “canary in
coal mine”
Ways to Manage
4) Guild Mgt or Life-Form Mgt
– grouping of species based on use of same
type of resources (e.g., foraging guilds)