All images are from the FWS Image Library unless otherwise noted.

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All images are from the FWS Image Library unless
otherwise noted.
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Neglect and Exploitation

• Chapter 2

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In The Beginning

• Regarded as enemies to be conquered or controlled
• by 500AD wild animals replaced with domestic ones
• peasants saw wildlife as competitors for forage
• or predators on their herds
• Darkest era was market hunting
• exploitation of wildlife in US
• especially associated with waterfowl
• trumpeter swan for plumage

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• 1918 Migratory Bird Treaty Act
• ended market hunting for waterfowl
• Plume hunting
• Plumes (feathers) available only during nesting
  season
• wading birds in Florida
• herons, egrets
• Floridas 1877 anti-plumage law ineffective
• 1903 President Roosevelt
• executive order Pelican Island federal bird
  sanctuary
• 1904 51 wildlife refuges created
• beginning of National Wildlife Refuge System
• today more than 500 refuges

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Bison A Story of Near Extinction

• Bison bison
• hides shelter, clothing meat food
• sinews bowstrings dung fuel
• late 19th century changed balance
• slaughter of bison
• reduce Indian food supplies
• RR transported products
• repeating rifles allowed 200/day killed
• buffalo robes, leather for machine belts
• tongue a delicacy
• meat rotted on plains, hides inadequately
  preserved, discarded
• President Grant vetoed protective legislation
  1974
• 1894 last free roaming bison shot
• some left in Yellowstone, other public lands

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The Passenger Pigeon An American Tragedy

• Ectopistes migratorius
• once most numerous bird on Earth
• flocks of 2 billion birds, groups 400 km long, 90
  nests/tree
• tonnage of droppings fertilized forests
• fecundity single egg
• millions killed for food, shipped to market
• squabs (young birds) a delicacy
• trees felled to obtain large numbers of
  youngbirds
• destruction of nesting habits
• lack of refrigeration so more killed to offset
  losses of spoilage
• major factors in extinction
• railroads for transportation and access to
  nesting colonies
• telegraph to keep hunters informed of nomadic
  pigeons movement
• gregarious critical mass of birds was catalyst
  needed for breeding
• extinct in wild in 1885 1914 at Cincinnati
  Zoo

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Others, Too, Are Gone

• Labrador duck Camptorhyncus labradorius
• 1875 disappeared so quickly little is known
• humans destroyed food resources
• Heath hen Tympanuchus cupido cupido
• other races are eastern prairie grouse and
  prairie chicken
• woodland clearings
• New York had protective legislation, ignored due
  to value
• Marthas Vineyard 2000, most died in fire in 1916
• disease claimed all but 25 by 1925
• last seen 1932
• sex ratio favored males
• predation and poaching doomed heath hen

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• Carolina parakeet Conuropsis carolinensis 1914
• heavily timbered bottomlands near rivers and
  swamps in SE US
• eastern range diminished due to expanding human
  settlement
• disappeared by late 1870s except those in deep
  Florida swamps
• birds depended on mature forests, threatened by
  lumber industry
• birds susceptible when hovering over carcass of
  those killed
• roost in hollow trees, destroyed by farmers to
  protect orchards
• Great Auk Pinguinus impennis 1844
• flightless, penguin-like
• hunted, trapped for meat, eggs, feathers
• more rare, more valuable, increased pressure
• Hawaiian rail Pennula sandwichensis
• introduced rats eliminated this small marsh bird

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Extinction

• Natural process
• Human accelerated process 40 - 400 times
• 173 species, subspecies birds in historic times
• 388 birds endangered
• 66 species, subspecies vanished since 1900
• most directly/indirectly tied to human activities

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Near Extinctions Wood Ducks, Wild Turkeys

• Wood Duck Aix sponsa
• nest in tree cavities in wet wooded areas
• attractive plumage and distribution in regions
  with dense human settlement
• vulnerable to shooting
• nesting habitat dwindled
• recognized in 1913 potential for demise

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• Wild turkeys Meleagris gallapavo
• 3 - 36 birds/square km
• 10 million wild turkeys
• shot/trapped for food
• 1708 New York protected turkeys during
  nesting/brooding
• 1897 - 1920, states set various limits
• ranged from one per day to 2 per season
• protection stemmed decline of wild turkeys
• restoration programs established
• failed efforts result of game farm restocking
• wild turkeys successful, new knowledge helpful
• Others
• California condor, Kirtlands warbler
• Indiana bat, Black-footed ferrets

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Excess Reindeer, Deer, Blackbirds

• Overabundance of Reindeer
• Figure 2-4
• reindeer introduction of 29 exploded to 6000 in
  17 years
• following winter population crashed, left 42
  reindeer
• all females, one sterile male
• died of starvation lichens overgrazed due to
  numbers of reindeer
• new lichens not palatable to reindeer
• Mule Deer
• Kaihab Plateau in AZ
• predator control and protection from hunting
• population increase from 4000 to 100,000
• vegetation depleted herd dropped 60 by
  starvation

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Eruption of Population With Absence of
PredationFigure 2-4
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• Upper Michigan overprotected deer population
• hunting resort opened in 1959
• wolves had disappeared from area earlier
• resort feed deer, numbers increased
• 1070s took 80 tons food
• 1974 land donated to National Park Service
• winter with 600 deer and only 20 tons food
• 1976 special hunt to kill 300 deer but people
  protested
• next winter no hunt and no feed
• starvation and predation by coyotes reduced
  population to 100
• 1983 herd declined to zero
• deer browsed on natives, were replaced by balsam
• now no browse deer eat

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• Blackbird concentration in winter roosting areas
• 4 species
• fed on field crops and cattle feedlots
• proximity of roosting sites to feeding areas
• birds noisy, dirty, damage crops, health hazards
• techniques
• spraying with detergents in hope theyd freeze
• noisemakers
• recorded bird distressed calls
• thinning roost trees

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Predator Control Bounties, Baits, Blunders

• Predator-prey relationships
• Old view predators root of evil
• William Hornaday wrote Our Vanishing Wildlife
• 1930s predator control common
• bounties offered on wolves, fox, weasels,
  crows, coyotes
• when bounty removed in 1980 in MI, no change in
  coyote number
• Bounties subject to fraud
• 1970 Nixon eliminate poison on federal land
• no evidence of control
• Non-target animals unintentional victims
• Executive Order 1972 banned poisons

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Exotic Wildlife

• Ring-necked pheasants
• brown trout
• axis deer, blackbuck antelope, eland, big game
  from Asia Africa
• starlings
• house sparrows
• brown rats

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Summary

• Extinction irreversible
• Overprotection of some species leads to
  uncontrolled population growth, starvation,
  habitat damage