Wildlife Conservation

Summary

Wildlife conservation is a broad discipline that focuses on assuring a future for wildlife in this rapidly changing world. It encompasses a diversity of careers. Some are highly specialized, such as wildlife veterinarian, wildlife biologist, university professor, and environmental lawyer. Others, such as wildlife refuge manager, wildlife research technician, wildlife educator, and wildlife law enforcement officer, incorporate the tools and skills of many disciplines coordinated and directed to accomplish wildlife conservation tasks. Wildlife conservation careers involve understanding relationships between wildlife and the environment, the behavioral interactions among species, and the impacts of human-caused and natural changes on wildlife populations.

Definition and Basic Principles

Wildlife conservation focuses on protecting, enhancing, and managing wildlife populations in their natural habitats. Understanding ecosystems, habitats, food habits, migration, home ranges, territoriality, reproductive biology, predator-prey relationships, the nature and impact of wildlife diseases, and human impacts on all of these are essential to wildlife conservation. The development and publication of field guides and the availability of quality binoculars have increased public interest in wildlife and have dramatically facilitated species identification. The development of wildlife telemetry techniques and equipment, enhanced photography and sound recording capabilities, computers that can be used in the field, software such as Geographic Information Systems (GIS), Global Positioning Systems (GPS), and molecular techniques that help identify genetic differences among populations are among the many technological advances of the late twentieth century that enhanced the quality and scope of information that wildlife conservationists could use.

Such technological advances have led to more efficient and effective wildlife conservation and, along with the need associated with declining habitat availability, have driven specialization and growth in wildlife conservation career opportunities. GIS, molecular ecology, wildlife telemetry, fire ecology, translocation, and captive breeding are among many opportunities for specialization within wildlife research and management careers. Wildlife educators, communicators, photographers, and ecotourism operators function at many levels to promote understanding and support of wildlife conservation. Zookeepers, veterinarians, and wildlife rehabilitators contribute significantly to the understanding and promotion of wildlife health and wildlife reintroduction programs. Environmental law enforcement officers and lawyers are on the front line of wildlife conservation, promoting sound conservation laws and appropriate mitigation efforts and assuring compliance with legal mandates to protect species and their habitat.

Background and History

As human populations grew in the eighteenth century, declines were seen in some wildlife populations, and local laws were sometimes passed to limit hunting, but wildlife conservation in its infancy was largely a voluntary effort, not yet capable of supporting careers. Employment in the field of wildlife conservation was a development in the late nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Early wildlife conservation efforts focused on human needs, such as depleted game populations or fisheries.

Careers in wildlife conservation began in earnest with the establishment by Congress of the Unite States (US) Fish Commission in 1871 to find ways to conserve declining fish populations. Concern for the welfare of birds and the scientific study of birds grew in the latter half of the nineteenth century, resulting in the founding of the American Ornithologists' Union in 1883 and other professional scientific societies. These had some conservation focus and appointed conservation committees to discuss conservation issues and support efforts to solve conservation problems. Such organizations raised public understanding and awareness of problems and were often led by government employees.

As American agriculture grew, blackbirds and other species were increasingly labeled pest species. In 1885, the Office of Economic Ornithology was created within the US Department of Agriculture. This supported wildlife careers in studying bird food habitats, migration, and habitat use. Although initiated from a negative and economic perspective, the knowledge gained became foundations for later conservation efforts.

In the 1890s, feathers had become fashionable adornments of ladies' hats and other clothing, and the killing of birds for the millinery industry grew. Hundreds of thousands of egrets, terns, and other birds were shot for their highly desirable and valuable breeding plumes. Chicks were left to die in the sun. As bird populations plummeted and stories of the slaughter became known, public outrage led to the formation of clubs, boycotts of clothing with feathers, and public pressure for legal action to protect birds. Such actions led to the formation of the Massachusetts Audubon Society in 1896, other state Audubon societies, and, in 1905, to the formation of the National Audubon Society. Such nonprofit, conservation-oriented organizations established sanctuaries and hired wardens to protect wildlife. These organizations continue to be significant employers in the field of wildlife conservation.

In 1905, the federal government responded to growing conservation sentiments by changing the name of the Office of Economic Ornithology to the Bureau of Biological Survey. The Biological Survey later became the US Fish and Wildlife Service. Other federal agencies (US Forest Service, Bureau of Land Management, Department of Defense) also developed wildlife conservation programs associated with lands they managed.

During the twentieth century, habitat losses, species endangerment and extinctions, and pollution led to national (the Endangered Species Act of 1973) and international (International Convention on Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora) legal protection for wildlife. Government responsibilities for wildlife and government career opportunities in wildlife conservation continued to grow. Nonprofit conservation organizations also grew in number and in conservation roles, providing further wildlife conservation career opportunities. Legal protections for wildlife and its habitats also fostered a large service sector that provided career opportunities in wildlife conservation to assist the industry in complying with conservation legal requirements. Finally, in the twenty-first century, public interest in wildlife grew to include a large, multifaceted ecotourism industry that provided many career opportunities in wildlife conservation.

How It Works

Wildlife conservation began with protecting animals from overhunting but quickly expanded to include the recognition that destruction and fragmentation of wildlife habitats also reduced wildlife populations. By the mid-twentieth century, it had also become evident that industrial and agricultural chemicals could harm wildlife. The latter realization led to the understanding that humans share these ecosystems with wildlife and that, in a genuine sense, wildlife was the barometer to the health of the world at large and an indicator of problems that humans could face. Such understanding gave new currency to careers in wildlife conservation. It was also learned that the interconnections between humans and wildlife include shared diseases. The phrase "ecosystem health" took on new meaning. Lyme disease, West Nile virus, rabies, and other diseases created wildlife conservation career niches for veterinarians and other health professionals. The diversity of careers within the broad field of wildlife conservation continues to grow. Many wildlife conservationists work outdoors; others work at zoos, museums, universities, industries, and in the offices of government agencies and nonprofit organizations. As the twenty-first century progressed, new careers developed in wildlife conservation. Animal geneticist, wildlife forensic crime analyst, and wildlife conservation lobbyist are just a few examples of new careers developing in the field of wildlife conservation.

Refuge, Preserve, or Park Management. Local, state, regional, and national parks, preserves, and wildlife refuges provide significant habitats for wildlife and significant recreational activities for humans. Managers of these lands must deal with wildlife conservation issues ranging from maintaining and managing habitats to managing hunting and fishing, providing for endangered and threatened species, and conservation education. Land managers must understand wildlife habitat needs and the tools for satisfying those needs. It is the land manager's responsibility to make decisions regarding such things as the periodic use of prescribed burning, control of exotic or invasive species, closing of some areas to the public, regulation of hunting, and other recreational or research activities. All of these responsibilities must be carried out with a clear understanding of the natural landscape and the ecosystem within which it is located, the laws that govern the landscape and the wildlife found there, and the human communities of the region. Land managers always work at the human-wildlife interface, and, sometimes, the work on the human side is the most challenging.

Wildlife Telemetry. One of the most useful tools in wildlife conservation is telemetry. On the local scale this can involve the attachment of a transmitter to an animal and following its signal using a handheld receiver and antenna or using an automated receiver linked to multiple large, fixed antennae to learn patterns of daily or seasonal habitat use. For larger animals, it can also involve monitoring long-distance migrations using transmitters that communicate with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's (NOAA) Argos weather satellite. The Argos satellite system was established in 1978 and continues to be used for wildlife telemetry and other applications into the twenty-first century. As the satellite passes over the animal with a transmitter, it establishes an uplink and stores information from the transmitter. Later, as the satellite passes over a receiving station on Earth, that information, including location coordinates for the animal, is transmitted by downlink to the receiving station and from there to the researcher. The quality of telemetry equipment and software has steadily increased while, at the same time, the size of transmitters has decreased, allowing them to be used effectively on insects. Methods of attachment have also changed over the years. Some transmitters are affixed to an animal with a harness or collar, some are glued to a bird's feathers or the back of a turtle or attached to a leg or fin, and some are now implanted in or fed to the animal. The use of telemetry can help scientists understand such things as the amount of space a species needs, the habitats it uses, daily and seasonal patterns in behavior, and how the needs of males, females, and juveniles may differ. Limitations on the use of transmitters include size, battery duration, signal strength, and tolerance of the species or individual animal to the transmitter. The capabilities of all of these parameters are continually improving.

Wildlife Law Enforcement. Increasing legal protections for wildlife, along with growing and increasingly mobile human populations, have created a diversity of career opportunities. Wildlife law enforcement agents are hired at city, county, state, national, and international levels. In general, this hierarchy reflects increasing pay, increasing responsibility, and increasing specialization. At the local level, responsibilities might be associated with enforcing hunting and anticruelty laws. At the state level, they can involve enforcing fish and game warden duties, helping to manage hunting, enforcing or administering efforts associated with state laws protecting threatened species and their habitats, enforcing laws regulating the keeping of wild animals in captivity, inspecting pet stores, dealing with nuisance animals, and working with veterinarians and others associated with wildlife-health issues. At the national level, wildlife law enforcement agents are often associated with managing and enforcing hunting regulations on federal lands, interstate transport of wildlife, importation of wildlife, and protection of federally protected species. Wildlife law enforcement agents are often associated with US border crossings, where they assist with controlling the importation of wildlife from around the world. At any level, a wildlife law enforcement agent might have to work alone, work on weekends, and work at all times of day and night. At other times, wildlife law enforcement agents work with other professionals as part of a team dealing with issues that include but may go far beyond, wildlife conservation issues.

Wildlife Rehabilitation. Caring for sick, injured, or orphaned wildlife provides career opportunities at wildlife rehabilitation centers, zoos, veterinary clinics, theme parks, animal shelters, and research centers. Sometimes, this requires problem- or species-specific training and can require advanced education as a veterinarian, radiologist, or other medical specialty. In addition to career opportunities, wildlife rehabilitation provides a great deal of opportunity for volunteer efforts and internships that can provide training for individuals potentially interested in a wildlife conservation career.

Zoological Medicine. Veterinarians who specialize in working with zoo animals or free-roaming wildlife are certified as diplomates in zoological medicine. To receive this distinction, they must have at least three years of professional training beyond that required for a degree in veterinary medicine and fulfill other requirements of the American College of Zoological Medicine. Although sometimes referred to as "wildlife veterinarians," that designation is not an official title but merely a descriptor of what they do. Veterinarians with this expertise are critical to captive breeding and rehabilitation of wildlife.

Applications and Products

Wildlife conservation initially needed little in the way of specialized equipment and produced little in the way of products other than the game that was being protected and managed. The growth of wildlife conservation during the twentieth century, however, has produced a number of things that have been of use outside of wildlife conservation—not the least of which is a land ethic fostered by Aldo Leopold in his 1949 book, A Sand County Almanac. It helped promote the idea that not all land use should be determined by immediate economic benefit. Leopold noted that ecosystem "health is the capacity of the land for self-renewal." He defined conservation as "our effort to understand and preserve this capacity." That is what the field of wildlife conservation is all about.

Conservation and Mitigation Banking. Within a few years of the passage of the Endangered Species Act of 1973, the legal burden of providing mitigation for environmental harm done was taking up a lot of court and industry time. In 1995, the federal and state governments approved mitigation banking to provide predetermined mitigation for environmental harm to wetlands. It was a free-market process whereby an entrepreneur would restore or develop wetlands that would be approved as a mitigation bank. Then, when a court decided that mitigation needed to be done to offset damages to a wetland, the party causing the harm could buy mitigation credits from an approved mitigation bank to satisfy the obligation. The success of mitigation banking for wetlands led to the development of a similar program, called conservation banking, to provide predetermined conservation credits to mitigate harm done to an endangered species.

Bird Banding. Being able to mark a bird so that it can be identified as an individual at a later date was essential to understanding bird longevity, migration and other movements, and bird social behavior. Banding involves placing a serially numbered metal band on a bird's leg, recording details of its sex, age, and where it was banded, and having those data available in a central repository to retrieve if the bird was found by someone else, somewhere else, at a later time. Bird banding began as a hobby in the early 1900s but was quickly realized as a useful scientific tool. In 1920, the Bureau of Biological Survey took over all responsibilities for managing bird banding and banding data to ensure the quality of data and so that the technique could be used in wildlife management. Later techniques were developed for adding colored plastic bands along with the serially numbered band, allowing researchers to identify individuals by their color-band combinations without recapturing them. These techniques continue to be vital tools in bird conservation.

Translocation Efforts. One of the major conservation problems facing wildlife is habitat fragmentation and species isolation in small pockets of habitat. The small number of individuals in such populations results in the population being highly vulnerable to extinction due to random events (such as wildfire, tornado, or predation) and also subjects the population to inbreeding, which can result in genetic harm to the population. What was needed was a way to move individuals from one population to another and to have some assurance that they would stay in the new area and not attempt to return to their original site. The endangered red-cockaded woodpecker is an example of a species facing such problems. Studies of individually color-banded birds revealed that breeding males removed from their homes would quickly return from great distances. Still, young birds, especially young females, could be moved and remain at a new site. Translocation efforts using young birds and careful timing have been improved upon through research and are now a common tool for this and other bird species. Similar efforts have also been developed and used for species, such as the black-footed ferret. Radio telemetry is often used in conjunction with translocated animals to closely monitor their movements.

Photography. While photography has long been used in many disciplines, it has often been used as a supplement or simply for illustration rather than filling a specific need. With the advent of high-quality digital cameras, photography has taken on important roles in documenting wildlife and wildlife conservation efforts. Researchers take photos for specific purposes and in specific ways rather than merely capturing snapshots. Wildlife photographers now play critical roles in research, conservation education, and communication.

Careers and Course Work

Minimum wage, entry-level positions are available in the field of wildlife conservation for high school graduates. These are typically unskilled-labor positions associated with the management of wildlife habitat, cleaning cages, feeding animals, and clerical positions for government or nonprofit organizations. These are great positions from which to learn about the long hours and hard work associated with wildlife conservation. They are also positions from which to gain experience to add to a resume and contacts who can serve as references as one moves upward in a career. Internships, paid or unpaid, provide experience and put one into the arena of wildlife conservation.

As with other fields, opportunity, responsibility, and job flexibility come with post-high school education. An associate's degree from a community college with courses in English, speech, biology, chemistry, and basic math is a good stepping-stone to a Bachelor's degree. English composition and communication skills are important. A Bachelor's degree in biology, environmental studies, environmental science, or wildlife ecology is a good background for many entry-level positions in government, industry, or nonprofit organizations. For most, however, a Master's degree with specialization and work or volunteer internship experience in a specific field of interest is key to a brighter future. Research positions generally require a PhD or a veterinary medicine degree. As graduate students work under the mentorship of a major professor, when it is time to select a graduate program, one is best served by choosing a graduate program based on the professor with whom they would most like to study. It is in the student's best interest to find an individual who has chosen the path that they would like to follow.

Social Context and Future Prospects

Wildlife conservation was barely known as a career option two hundred years ago. It has since grown in importance and diversified into areas of specialization as diverse as education, law enforcement, satellite telemetry, zoological medicine, land management, wildlife photography, and the rescue of endangered species. It remains a vibrant, actively growing field that offers travel opportunities to distant jungles and ocean depths, zoos and research facilities, parks and preserves, backyards, and city streets. Any career in wildlife conservation is one from which to learn and grow continually. The challenges are great, and change and innovation will be the norm in the future. More sophisticated transmitters, greater use of satellite telemetry, and more use of molecular biology are on the horizon.

Oil spills, invasive species, habitat loss, human factors, such as discarded medicines, diseases, including cancers perhaps caused by factors in the environment, and climate change threaten wildlife. Finding causes and cures for them may provide hope for humanity. Challenges for wildlife conservationists in are to connect isolated populations through development of habitat corridors and to find better ways of translocating individuals to preserve genetic diversity, to unlock the secrets of captive breeding of difficult species, and to find the will and the means to restore the habitats they need. Technology continues to advance and aid wildlife conservationists, but also of importance are interdisciplinary studies which take a holistic approach to conservation.

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