Critical Thinking Skills

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Critical Thinking Skills

• First, need to differentiate between beliefs and
  knowledge

• Process
• Gather complete information
• Question the methods, conclusions, sources of
  study
• Tolerate some level of uncertainty
• Look at the Big Picture

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Scientific Method
Reject
Fail to Reject
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"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)
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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
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History of Wildlife Management
Making way for modern wildlife species
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History of Wildlife Management

• Humans colonize N.A. Quaternary Period,
  Pleistocene Epoch
• ice ages 13,000 ybp
• - evidence for 50,000 ybp

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History of Wildlife Management

• Large mammal extinctions (exploitation?)
• 66 of megafauna extinct

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History of Wildlife Management

• American Indians
• wildlife
• fire

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History of Wildlife Management

• 500 ybp, Europeans arrive.
• Spanish bring horses, livestock

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History of Wildlife Management

• 500 ybp, Europeans arrive.
• Other Europeans exploit fisheries, fur, meat,
  feathers. (1870-1915)

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History of Wildlife Management

• Fur trade near extinction of beaver (Castor
  canadensis)

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History of Wildlife Management

• Market hunting
• Near extinction of bison 60M to 150

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History of Wildlife Management

• Market hunting
• Bison
• Successful extinction of passenger pigeon
• - immense abundance (400 km long, 1800)

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History of Wildlife Management

• Passenger pigeon
• immense abundance (400 km long, 1800)
• 1878 3 months, 1.5 M pigeons from MI to market

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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)

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History of Wildlife Management

• Habitat loss Exploitation

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History of Wildlife Management

• Habitat loss Exploitation

Or is it gone?
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History of Wildlife Management
Or is it gone? http//www.birds.cornell.edu/ivory
/multimedia/videos/index_html http//www.birds.co
rnell.edu/ivory/multimedia/sounds
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History of Wildlife Management

• U.S. policy
• Manifest Destiny
• Land Rush
• Agricultural Development

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History of Wildlife Management

• Fear of losing species at such fast rates
  (especially game species)..birth of modern
  wildlife conservation movement

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Modern Wildlife Management

• Aldo Leopold
• wrote Sand County Almanac
• wrote Game Management
• 1st university wildlife program (UW-Madison)
• Land Ethic

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April 22, 1970
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• Recent Epoch (0.01 Mybp - present)
• historic time
• green industrial revolutions
• rapid loss of biodiversity
• Largest extinction event?

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• Our Insatiable Appetite for Energy

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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

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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

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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

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Habitat

• Habitat from an evolutionary perspective
• Species distribution relative to habitat distn
• Climatic events

• Pleistocene Epoch distn of modern species

• Evolutionary underpinnings
• Adaptation Evolution for habitat

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Behavior is Important!
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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

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Hutchisons n-dimensional hypervolume
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Concept of Habitat Selection

• Hutchison n-dimensional hypervolume as
  explanation of the niche

• Fundamental vs. Realized Niche

Species 2
Species 1
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Testing the Hutchinsonian Niche Concept of
Habitat Selection

• James work with birds in Arkansasquantified
  habitat relationships

• How do birds select habitat?
• niche gestalt each species has characteristic
  perceptual worldresponds to that world as
  organized whole search image concept

• How do we (as wildlife biologists) see through
  the eyes of wildlife species?

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Scale Dependence of Habitat Selection
1st Order 2nd Order 3rd Order 4th Order
Macrohabitat vs. Microhabitat
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Habitat Selection

• Proximate Factors vs. Ultimate Factors
• Immediate Evolutionary context
  context
• Predation Fitness relations
• Competition
• Abiotic factors

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Human Resource Use
Human Values Attitudes
(Socio-political)
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Naturally patchy distribution of resources
Heterogeneity supports greater diversity right!?
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habitat interspersion Leopolds Law of
Interspersion
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Managing for Biodiversity
Paradigm of Wildlife Biology Conservation
Biology
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Human-induced heterogeneity
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Land-use Trends Private vs. Public
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• Human Land Use Practices
• Agriculture
• Suburban Development
• Lets pick on Indiana
• 97 of land in state privately-owned
• In central Indiana,
• 70 of land in row crop
• lt10 in forest
• Urban sprawl intensifying

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Intensive Agriculture Clean Farming
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Timber Extraction Fragmentation
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Formation of Terrestrial Islands
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Oceanic Island Terrestrial Island ?????
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Important Wildlife Legislation

• Lacey Act no interstate commerce
• 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
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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
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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

• 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)
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Importance of Management

• Finite natural resources (land, water, wildlife,
  fuel, etc)

• Future generations inherit our world

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Managing for Biodiversity
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Biodiversity

• Genetic diversity and
• evolution
• reproduction
• adaptation
• disease

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Biodiversity

• Species Diversity and
• Evolution
• Community stability
• Predator-prey relations (keystone predators)
• Umbrella species

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Biodiversity

• Ecosystem Diversity and
• Evolution
• Flow of Energy Nutrients
• Disturbance change

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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

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Types of Management

• 2) Manage People
• Law enforcement
• Public relations
• Control access and/or use
• Education

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Types of Management

• 3) Manage Habitat
• Maintain habitat
• Improve habitat

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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

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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

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Ways to Manage

• 1) Featured Species Mgt
• single species
• particular purpose
• e.g., white-tailed deer
• could also include umbrella species and
  flagship species

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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

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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)