The total annual reproduction by a wildlife population is generally determined by 7 items. Each item may be influenced by habitat conditions and environmental factors (e.g., nutrition, weather, stress, disease, etc.). Because of this, a wildfire manager may have to measure several aspects of reproduction to understand an animal’s reproductive successes or failures. So what are the 7…
Mating Systems
Today we’ll discuss the 3 types of Mating Systems: Monogamy, Polygamy, and Promiscuity! But first we shall go over sex ratios before getting into the main topic. Sex Ratios express the relative abundance of each sex in wildlife populations. Sex ratios are expressed as “the number of males: the number of females“ 50 : 50 even sex…
Wildlife Reproduction
In a stable animal population, reproduction must offset natural mortality – especially if the animals are harvested! It’s important for the wildlife manager to monitor reproductive success and be aware of the factors that can impact reproduction! Before we get started, here are some terms to know: Fecundity: Ability of an animal to produce eggs or…
Migration
We’ll finish up our discussion of movement with the second type of movement: Migration. Migration is a periodic movement involving a round-trip! There are two types of migration: Altitudinal Migration: animals migrate relatively short distances up and down mountains out west e.g., big game (elk, mule deer, moose) – their “summer” and “winter” ranges Latitudinal Migration: animals migrate a long distance;…
Wildlife Movements
A critical part of wildlife management is understanding how wildlife moves within its habitat. We will break down the first of the two types of movement: Local Movement. There are four main types of Local Movement: Home Range: a home range is the area traveled by an animal in its normal daily activities. An animal…
Edge Habitat
An important component to overall habitat health is called EDGE. Edge is the transition zone, or ecotone, where one type of plant community “gives way” to another plant community. Wildlife managers like edge because it provides animals with simultaneous access to 2 or more vegetation types – where its likely several welfare factors are located….
Habitat Essentials
A habitat is the kind of biotic community, or set of biotic communities, in which an animal lives – a habitat is an animal’s natural home! So how does an animal decide where to live? We’ll discuss that and a few habitat components that can help turn your animals house into a home! How an animal…
Wildlife Nutrition
Wether you’re managing 1,000 acres in food plots, or only have a small area you want to make more appealing to your neighborhood wildlife, knowing what nutrients an animal needs is the first step. Its important to remember that animals in good condition generally have higher reproduction rates and are more resistant to all forms…
Natural Selection
Since our last discussion, have you ironed out your wildlife philosophy? If not, don’t worry – it took me years of both academic and real-life experiences to help me fine tune my own beliefs. We’ll keep working on it! In this post, we’ll discuss Wildlife Management and the Concept of Natural Selection. A basic concept…
The Principles
To get a basic understanding of wildlife biology and management: start with the principles. One of the first classes you take getting your degree in Wildlife is Principles of Wildlife Management. My favorite professor, Dr. Elliott, taught this class and started out his notes with this: “Wildlife Management: The application of ecological knowledge to populations…
wildbioadventures.org 