To expand upon our last post of the role of harvesting wildlife, one of the ways that wildlife managers can manipulate hunting to influence wildlife populations is Trophy Deer Management and Quality Deer Management (QDM). These obviously relate specifically to deer populations, but these large herbivores are one of your biggest revenue streams and need…
Tag: Reproduction
Wildlife & Harvest: Part II
In a continuation of our last post, where does hunting (or harvest) fit in? When properly managed and regulated, harvest (be it hunting, trapping, or fishing) can be used to take the place of some forms of natural mortality. Harvest should be a replacing form of mortality, it should replace some of the mortality which…
Population Size & Reproduction
Environmental factors that may influence the reproductive process (e.g., nutrition, weather, crowding, predation, disease) often have more severe impacts on reproductive success when wildlife populations are HIGH rather than low. Why? In large populations there is more competition for both quantity and quality of food and cover, which leads us into a discussion of density-dependent reproduction….
Reproductive Processes
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…
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…
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