Brainscape's Knowledge GenomeTM

Browse over 1 million classes created by top students, professors, publishers, and experts.


See full index

Wildlife management > Wk 1 > Flashcards

Wk 1 Flashcards

1
Q

What is wildlife

A

Animals and plants that grow independently of people, usually in natural conditions

  • Generally vertebrates
How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
2
Q

Population

A

Group of coexisting individuals of the same species

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
3
Q

Custodial management

A

Preventative or protective

  • Aimed at minimising external influences
  • Leaving system to own devices
  • Example: land preservation
How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
4
Q

Manipulative management

A

Does something to a populations

  • Direct
  • Indirect
  • Example: food supply, habitat
How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
5
Q

Wildlife management must:

A
  • Identify the problem
  • Have goals that explicitly address the solution to the problem
  • Have clearly defined success criteria
How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
6
Q

A wildlife population may be managed in 4 ways:

A
  1. Make if increase
  2. Make it decrease
  3. Harvest for sustainable yield
  4. Do nothing, but keep an eye on it
How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
7
Q

What 3 decisions are needed when planning for wildlife management?

A
  1. What is the desired goal? (value judgement)
  2. Which management options are appropriate? (technical judgement)
  3. Which action will best achieve goal? (technical/value judgement)

Example: Overabundant koalas in SE Ausralia

  • Marooning of koalas on offshore islands
  • Highly successful in facilitating large scale reintroduction programs
  • Genetic diversity limited as 2 koalas started the population on French Island
  • Now have highly fragmented populations
How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
8
Q

Impact of overabundant koala population

A
  • Over-browsing and subsequent tree death
  • Threaten local tree communities
  • Starvation of koalas
  • decline of other species
How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
9
Q

Step by step process - wildlife management

A
  1. Define the problem
  2. Identify goals that address the solution to the problem (set specific targets)
  3. Which management options are appropriate?
    - What benefits are gained
    - What penalties accrue
    - Cost vs benefit
  4. Which management action will best achieve the goal?
  5. Implement management action
  6. Monitor (and report) outcomes
  7. Evaluate success of program
How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
10
Q

Step 1: Define the problem

A

Implies some baseline knowledge about the population

  • Size of the population
  • Changes in population size over time
  • Impact of/on population (ideally quantitative)
  • Scale of the problem

Example: Urban Kangaroos

  • Nelson bay golf course
  • Lots of kangaroos - local estimate 400-500
  • Need management
  • Potential negative impacts - vehicle collisions, damage to golf course
  • Need to obtain baseline data
How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
11
Q

Step 2: Identify goals to solve problem

A

This may require direct manipulation of the population or an indirect manipulation of some aspect of the environment

Set specific (quantitative) targets (e.g. reduce digging by x%) –> so you can evaluate your success

Consult stakeholders - remember this is a value-driven judgement

Example: Urban Kangaroos
Reduce (or stabilise) kangaroo population
- To reduce incidence of kangaroo-vehicle collisions, and/or
- To reduce incidence of damage to golf course by kangaroos
- Specific numbers should be given where possible

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
12
Q

Step 3: What management is appropriate?

A

What management options are available for a given species/location

What management options are practically feasible

Timeframe for results

Cost: Benefit

What options are socially acceptable

What option are politically acceptable

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
13
Q

Step 4: What option will best achieve goal

A

From a pragmatic perspective, which option is most likely to achieve the goal (i.e. this is a technical judgement that does not take into account value judgement)

In real life it is nearly impossible to not include a value judgement

Hence steps 3 & 4 usually occur simultaneously

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
14
Q

Experimental approach vs traditional approach

A

Experimental approach preferred due to uncertainty in systems being managed

  • Questions are not always clear
  • Initial state of the system is inherited and not in ideal condition
  • Criteria for success or failure are not always clear to stakeholders
  • Wildlife managers are seldom in complete control of the situation think budgets, competing interests, politics etc.
  • We are trying to manage a dynamic system, with its own in-built checks and balances

An experimental approach can therefore give you less ambiguous assessment of success or failure

Technical judgments can be evaluated as right or wrong, provided the right questions are asked (i.e. an appropriate hypothesis is presented) and the management is designed as an experiment

Value judgments are not testable

Example:

  • Technical judgment: Elephants must be culled, otherwise they will eliminate Acacia tortilis trees from an area
  • Value judgment: Does the local survival of Acacia tortilils justify the culling of elephants

Technical judgments can and should be tested

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
15
Q

Experimental approach

A
  1. Pose a research question (usually your best guess as to what is going on)
  2. Covert it to a null hypothesis
  3. Collect data that will test the null hypothesis
  4. Run the appropriate statistical test
  5. Accept or reject null hypothesis
  6. Convert the statistical conclusion to a biological one
How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
16
Q

Confounding factors

A

Example scenario: Test effect of particular hormone on behavioral responses of crayfish

Two groups: Males and females

Treatment group: Males

Control group: Females

Differences cannot be unambiguously attributed to hormones

Gender = confounding effect

17
Q

Pseudo-replication

A

The use of inferential statistics to test for treatment effects with data from experiments where either treatments are not replicated (though samples may be) or replicates are not statistically independent

Number of observations or the number of data points are treated inappropriately as independent replicates

  • Repeated measurements are taken on the same subject
  • The data have a hierarchical structure
  • Observations are correlated in time or
  • Observations are correlated in space
18
Q

Passive adaptive management

A

decision process that promotes flexible decision making that can be adjusted as uncertainties from management actions/events become better understood

19
Q

Active adaptive management

A

“Active adaptive management provides a framework for valuing learning by measuring the degree to which it improves long-run management outcomes. The challenge of an active adaptive approach is to find the correct balance between gaining knowledge to improve management in the future and achieving the best short-term outcome based on current knowledge.”

20
Q

Genetic rescue

A

It is well-recognised that habitat fragmentation and
population isolation can lead to inbreeding, loss of genetic
diversity and increased extinction risk

Genetic rescue = Augmenting gene flow between isolated
populations of the one species to reverse the effects of
inbreeding depression and increase genetic diversity

21
Q

Density dependence

A

Density-dependence refers to the process whereby either the birth rate and/or death rate varies with increasing density, specifically:

  • Birth rate declines with increasing density
  • Death rate increases with increasing density

Density-dependent factors can include food, space, cover, competition between individuals, predation, parasites and disease or other resources

Net effect – growth rate of the population declines with increasing density

22
Q

Biotic homogenization

A

Most species are declining as a result of human activities
(“losers”)

Being replaced by a smaller number of expanding species that
thrive in human modified environments (“winners”)

More homogenized biosphere, lower diversity at regional and global scales

Winners not only resist geographic decline, but expand their ranges…

Winners and losers tend to be clustered in certain taxonomic
groups because of evolutionarily shared traits

23
Q

Broad species characteristics that aid in successful adaption and/or exploitation of urban environments

A

Behaviour:
- Behavioural adaptability may be extremely important in exploiting urban environments
- Urban “winners” often exhibit different behaviours than their rural counterparts:
- Den sites
- Food preference
- Species that are less “plastic” or are naturally timid in
temperament may be disadvantaged in high disturbance environments
• Individual animals show differences in behaviour or
temperament, which may have a genetic basis – some animals
may be inherently more suited to urban environments (e.g.
those with a bold temperament)

Reproductive behaviour:
- Extended breeding season often observed in urban
environments
- Changes to breeding season do not always translate to higher productivity because of
additional risks – e.g. higher predation rates
in cities can counter any advantage of longer
breeding periods

Foraging behaviour:
- Greater food and water availability can buffer urban animals against seasonal fluctuations in resource availability
- But, disturbance can negatively affect foraging efficiency
- Foraging movement and activity can be high-risk
- Some species adapt by
timing foraging to coincide with
reduced human activity
e.g. European hedgehogs,
Urban coyotes and bobcats

Using human-subsidised resource: 
- Feeding wildlife in urban areas (food supplementation) --> behavioural changes:
- Earlier breeding, e.g. magpies
- Changes to timing of morning chorus, e.g. great tits
- Changes to seasonal
movement patterns,e.g. chipmunks
- Animals will feed on natural
resources when supp.
food items are no longer
available
  • Utilisation of landfill:
  • Australian white ibis: poor waste management credited with increased numbers
  • Behavioural flexibility (e.g. learning ability and tolerance for
    new objects) are thought to
    be important traits

Use of shelter:
- Artificial structures provide wildlife with alternative shelter in urban areas
For example:
- Brushtail possums in urban Australia
- Stone martens (Europe) use artificial den sites 97% of time
- Little penguins use rocky crevices in man-made coastal structures

Human disturbance:

  • There is a limit to the amount of disturbance that can be tolerated before foraging and breeding behaviour are disrupted
  • Some species have innately higher disturbance tolerance levels… allowing them to exploit urban environments
  • Bold temperament favoured in urban environments - - - Boldness may allow individuals to co-exist with humans without exhibiting chronic physiological stress
  • Aggression – often associated with boldness
  • In Australia, urban areas are dominated by aggressive bird species,
    e. g. magpie, white ibis and noisy miner
  • Increased aggression associated with increased densities and decreased fear of humans

Sensory disturbance:
- Noise and light pollution
• Acoustically communicating species need to find ways of
avoiding acoustic masking
• Light pollution can alter photoperiod responses, e.g. breeding
cues

24
Q

Key design principles for an in situ conservation reserve that are likely to maximise the conservation of biodiversity

A

Important characteristics of reserve design:
- Size
- Shape
- Length of the “edge”
- Distance between edge and centre (ratio of edge
to interior)
- Number of reserves
- Distance between reserves and/or connectivity
- “Hostility” of the matrix

Edge effects:

  • Edge of habitat favours generalist species
  • Easier for predators to invade, changes to the characteristics at the edge (e.g. exotic plants, loss of cover etc.)
  • Minimising “edge” through size and shape of a reserve

Is it better to have one big reserve or multiple smaller reserves?

  • Depends on a number of factors:
  • Desired outcomes – what are you trying to conserve?
  • Species assemblage– generalist or specialists (how will your species respond to “edges”)
  • Habitat type
  • Reserve location – by having more reserves does this mean you can conserve a broader range of habitats and therefore species

General principles:

  • Big is better than small
  • Round is better than linear
  • Grouped or linked is better than linear or isolate
  • More is better than less
25
Q

Activity indices - Scat counts (Eastern grey kangaroo)

A

All scats collected from designated quadrants and counted
Data presented as scats per unit area
Scat is easily identified in Eastern grey kangaroos

Assumptions:

  • Faecal decay rate does not vary in different habitats or at different times
  • Defaecation rate is proportional to degree of habitat use (i.e. is related to duration of use and not influenced by behavior in that habitat)
  • Removal of faecal material does not influence future defaecation rate

Limitations:

  • Only testing designating quadrants - areas of frequent deification may be missed –> inaccurate assumption of population size
  • Behaviour can impact defections sites and rates

Wildlife management (1 decks)

Brainscape helps you reach your goals faster, through stronger study habits.
© 2024 Bold Learning Solutions. Terms and Conditions