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Wildlife management is essential to creating a sustainable relationship between humans and wildlife. The goal is to keep animal populations at levels that are beneficial for both that animal’s survival and for the human population. Along with this, it also helps ensure biodiversity, a healthy balance of predators and prey, and that populations don’t go above “carrying capacity” (the maximum number of animals an area can support.)1
Management helps mitigate threats to wild animals. After all, most animals don’t need our help when it comes to bouncing back – it’s human activity that tends to interrupt their process.2
Take wolves for example, without threats of hunting by humans, wolves wouldn’t have a problem restoring themselves to healthy population numbers. The tricky part is managing human action against them because they’re still often seen as a threat.
There are several agencies that have a hand in wildlife management at the federal level:
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The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
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The U.S. Forest Service
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The Bureau of Land Management
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The National Park Service1
Each state also has its own agency that is involved, too.1
Wildlife management has played a key role in keeping wolves at healthy numbers. Biologists have tracked wolves and studied their movements so they can help reduce human-wolf conflict and keep livestock safe so wolves aren’t killed unnecessarily. Because of the hard work of biologists, wolves have been able to recover in a way they wouldn’t have been able to on their own.
Read more in our article here! Learn more about what biologists have done to help wolves, what they’ve learned from tracking them, and how it’s helped them provide support for both ranchers and wolves so they can coexist peacefully.
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