Wild animals are an important part of our environment, and for
centuries they have served our needs in a number of ways.
Historically, many species were used for food, clothing, or adornment.
But in those earlier years, wildlife was seldom managed. Some species,
such as the passenger pigeon, became extinct; and other species, like
the bison and beaver, became seriously depleted.
Today, wildlife continues to provide people with a variety of
benefits. Wild animals contribute to our enjoyment of outdoor
recreational activities such as camping, hiking, photography, and
hunting. The knowledge that abundant wildlife exists is important for
many people. Diverse wildlife species are major components of a
healthy environment; beavers, for example, can create aquatic habitats
beneficial to fish and waterfowl.
Wildlife is receiving increased attention as people develop a
broadened environmental consciousness. Wildlife is now recognized as
having esthetic as well as practical value and is managed by the
Federal and State Governments to ensure future abundance. In some
instances, however, this abundance has led to conflicts between human
and wildlife interests as the following examples illustrate.
People admire the industrious beaver.
However, when beavers disperse and take up residence near people,
their dams may cause flooding that damages valuable timber stands,
roadways, drainage culverts, and agricultural land. In the
Southeastern United States, beavers cause an estimated $100 million
in damage annually to public and private property.
Mountain lions are regarded as regal
animals symbolizing wilderness, and as a result of conservation
efforts, their populations are thriving across much of the West. In
California and Arizona, lion predation on livestock--sheep, cattle,
and horses--has increased. There are also occasional encounters
between lions and people. In April and December 1994, two California
women were attacked and killed by mountain lions--one while jogging
along the American River and the second while birding in Cuyamacca
State Park.
The mournful howl of a coyote
symbolizes the wild West for many people. However, coyotes can
inflict heavy economic damage to producers of domestic sheep, goats,
and cattle. In 1994, sheep and goat producers lost an estimated
$23.2 million due to predation. In 1995, cattle producers' losses to
predators were worth $39.6 million. Coyotes alone caused $11.5
million in sheep losses, $1.6 million in goat losses, and $21.8
million in cattle losses nationwide. Even in Eastern States, where
coyotes were relatively unheard of a decade ago, incidents of
predation on livestock are increasing.
Wildlife can adversely affect public
safety and health. Commercial and military aircraft sometimes
collide with birds and mammals during taxiing, takeoff, and landing.
According to Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) officials,
approximately 2,250 collisions between civilian aircraft and
wildlife are reported each year. Eighty percent of
aircraft--wildlife collisions are believed to go unreported. In all,
these collisions cause millions of dollars' worth of damage. The
potential for human injury and death is increased significantly when
wildlife is not kept away from airports and runways.
Wildlife-borne diseases of significant
concern to humans include rabies, bubonic plague, and histoplasmosis.
These diseases can be carried, reservoired, or transmitted by
wildlife to other wildlife, domestic livestock, and people. During
1995, the U.S. Public Health Service's Centers for Disease Control
and Prevention reported 8,566 cases of animal rabies in the United
States. Of these cases, 92 percent were in wildlife; 50 percent of
these involved raccoons. Rabies prevention costs between $230
million and $1 billion a year in the United States.
Many people do not realize that everyone is adversely affected by
the actions of wildlife at one time or another. Every consumer pays
more for commodities when supplies are decreased or damaged by
wildlife. However, the total value of the damage is extremely
difficult to estimate on a national scale. According to a survey
conducted by USDA's National Agricultural Statistics Service, more
than half of U.S. farmers experience economic loss from wildlife
damage. Birds cause an estimated annual loss to U.S. agriculture of
$100 million. During 1 year in Pennsylvania, white-tailed deer caused
crop losses totalling $30 million. The annual total dollar loss in the
United States from wildlife damage to agriculture is estimated to
exceed $550 million.
Responsible Management of
Wildlife Damage
Maintaining a balance between human and wildlife needs requires
sensitivity. In addressing the conflicts between wildlife and people,
wildlife managers must thoughtfully consider not only the needs of
those directly affected by wildlife damage but also a range of
environmental, sociocultural, and economic factors.
Wildlife is a valuable public resource. Federal and State
Governments are responsible for maintaining healthy, stable wildlife
populations. Accordingly, when wildlife causes damage, government has
an obligation to control that damage. Wildlife damage-control
responsibilities and authorities fall to different agencies depending
on the species, type of problem, and location. The U.S. Department of
the Interior's Fish and Wildlife Service has primary responsibility
for managing migratory birds and federally listed threatened and
endangered species. State wildlife management agencies have primary
authority for the management of nonmigratory birds and all other
species of wildlife not federally listed as threatened or endangered.
Legislation mandates that the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA)
provide assistance upon request of State Governments, private
individuals, and other Federal agencies to control and prevent damage
and disease caused or carried by wildlife. Cooperative agreements
provide for the management of various species, including management
for the purpose of controlling damage caused by wildlife.
The Role of Wildlife Services
Wildlife Services (WS), a unit of USDA's Animal and Plant Health
Inspection Service (APHIS), assists in solving problems that are
created when species of wildlife cause damage to agriculture. WS
personnel also assist with wildlife problems involving urban or
natural resources as well as threats to human health and safety.
WS is committed to the well-being of the environment and wildlife
and acts as a protective buffer between wildlife and people. Failure
to provide solutions to wildlife damage sometimes leads angry
individuals to take actions that are ecologically and biologically
damaging. Professional wildlife biologists and technicians employed by
APHIS' WS program can sometimes prevent such unwise reactions. By
providing a biologically sound, economically efficient response
coupled with education to individuals experiencing damage, WS benefits
individuals, the public, wildlife, and the environment.
WS is a Federal cooperative program that responds to requests by
persons and agencies needing help in controlling wildlife damage. Its
field operations are conducted in accordance with all Federal and
State guidelines and in cooperation with wildlife management
professionals from Federal and/or State agencies. In all instances, WS
programs are conducted to ensure no negative impact on wildlife
populations.
WS helps reduce wildlife damage to:
Agricultural crops--grain, sunflowers,
vegetables, fruit, and nuts;
Livestock--cattle, sheep, goats, swine,
horses, and poultry;
Commercial forests and forest products;
Aquaculture--cultivated trout, catfish,
bait fish, and marine shellfish and lobsters;
Natural resources--wildlife, wildlife
habitat, water quality, and rangelands;
Urban and industrial property--private
homes, public buildings, airports, golf courses, and reservoirs;
Public health and safety--preventing
bird strikes at airports and controlling wildlife-borne diseases;
and
Threatened or endangered species--such
as the whooping crane, California least tern, Aleutian goose, San
Joaquin kit fox, and roseate tern.
How WS Does
Its Job
Most of WS's efforts are conducted on private land, but work is
done on some public lands as well (less than 10 percent of federally
owned land).
Cost sharing is an integral component of the WS program. Supervised
primarily by WS personnel, most field activities are funded in part by
Federal, State, or local agencies; industry groups; or individuals
requesting wildlife damage-control assistance. When requested, WS
provides help through technical assistance and direct control.
Technical Assistance
Technical assistance involves providing advice, recommendations,
information, or materials for use in managing wildlife damage problems
and helping threatened and endangered species to thrive. WS employees
also help identify the responsible wildlife species and determine the
extent of the damage. WS may provide recommendations concerning
habitat modification, cultural practices to reduce the likelihood of
wildlife damage, behavior modification of the troublesome wildlife
species, or ways to reduce specific wildlife populations to control
the amount of damage they cause. WS personnel may suggest lethal or
nonlethal techniques to resolve wildlife damage problems. Such
assistance always takes into account environmental factors and
relevant laws and regulations. WS sometimes recommends that regulatory
agencies issue permits to allow resource owners to deal with wildlife
problems.
Direct Control
Some problems caused by wildlife species are too complex or
difficult for any one individual, group, or agency to solve. For
example, dealing with thousands of birds roosting in an urban
neighborhood is beyond the capabilities of most individuals. Likewise,
capturing coyotes, bears, mountain lions, or other large animals that
are preying on livestock usually requires specialized equipment and
skills. In these instances, WS provides field personnel to help
whoever is experiencing the problem. Direct control is usually
provided when the resource owner's efforts, such as habitat
modification or husbandry practices, have proven ineffective and
technical assistance alone is inadequate. WS staff consider practical
methods for resolving wildlife damage problems and take action by
implementing the most strategically appropriate measures.
Techniques
Recommended by WS
Whether or not a particular action is appropriate or practical
depends on a variety of factors, including the species causing damage,
the type of damage and its geographic location, and laws and
regulations. In general, three types of actions can be considered for
resolving instances of animals damaging a resource.
One approach is to move the resource away from the animal causing
damage. Moving sheep out of a pasture to reduce the likelihood of
predation by coyotes or moving beehives to an area away from marauding
black bears are examples of this approach.
A second possibility is to exclude an animal from the resource.
Using scare tactics to keep birds away from crops or electric fencing
to keep predators away from livestock are examples of this technique.
The third possibility is to relocate or remove the animal causing
the problem. Snaring and removing a bear from a sheep allotment or
trapping a coyote that has been killing calves are examples of this
approach.
Often, the most effective strategy to resolve wildlife damage
problems is to integrate the use of several methods or approaches,
either all at once or in turn. This is known as integrated pest
management (IPM). WS uses and recommends IPM to reduce damage by
wildlife while minimizing any harmful effects of the control measures
on humans, nontarget wildlife, domestic livestock, and the
environment. IPM may incorporate husbandry techniques like shed
lambing, modifying habitat (e.g., removing bird roosting cover
adjacent to crops), or using trapping, snaring, or shooting methods.
WS personnel use and recommend the best methods available, but some
of the methods currently used in wildlife damage control are not new.
For example, cage and leghold traps have been used for hundreds of
years. They continue to be important in wildlife management for
situations where no other alternative is available. Leghold traps can
be modified with padded or offset closures to make them more humane
for target animals and to facilitate the release of nontarget animals
back to the wild with little or no injury.
In selecting control techniques for specific damage situations, WS
professionals consider the species responsible for the damage; the
magnitude, geographic extent, duration, and frequency of the resource
loss; and the likelihood of the conflict's being repeated. In choosing
a control technique, WS specialists consider the biological and legal
status of the target species and potential nontarget species, local
environmental conditions and possible environmental impacts, and the
practicality of available control options.
The WS program does not exterminate native wildlife species because
such efforts are contrary to WS policy, are biologically unwise and
impractical, and are often illegal.
APHIS spends millions of dollars each year on research to develop
and improve techniques for reducing wildlife damage. Most of this
research is conducted by APHIS scientists at the National Wildlife
Research Center, which is headquartered in Ft. Collins, CO, with 9
field stations throughout the United States. Major research activities
include developing data to support Environmental Protection Agency
registrations for pesticides and materials used to control
vertebrates; developing nonchemical control techniques; evaluating the
effectiveness and safety of new and existing control methods; studying
the biology and behavior of wildlife species that cause damage;
assessing wildlife damage; and providing scientific information on
wildlife damage management to the WS program, other governmental
agencies, and the public.
The Benefits
The efforts of APHIS' WS program often result in higher economic
returns to those producing livestock or other products. For example,
Mississippi catfish farmers spent
roughly $2.1 million to help control cormorants and other
fish-eating birds causing an estimated $5.4 million damage.
WS activities directed toward
depredating birds in 12 cornfields in South Dakota saved 123 bushels
of corn per day.
Beaver control in Mississippi costing
about $11,000 saved an estimated $198,600 in timber.
Beaver control in Kentucky and
Tennessee costing $55,000 over an 18-month period saved timber
resources valued at $1.5 million.
Resources protected from wildlife damage benefit the public in the
form of lower consumer costs and the continued availability of a range
of commodities. An effective animal damage control program makes it
possible to use fewer acres to produce sufficient food resources for
the Nation. This also allows for reduced use of fossil fuels,
fertilizers, and pesticides.
An environmental impact statement (EIS), written in accordance with
the procedures established by the National Environmental Policy Act,
indicated that the WS program has no nationally significant adverse
impact on wildlife species diversity or abundance. Furthermore, the
EIS indicated that the program provides substantial benefits to
certain threatened and endangered species, has a positive impact on
protecting selected natural resources, and promotes the maintenance of
human health and safety.
Additional
Information
For further information about WS, contact the California State
office or write to, USDA, APHIS, WS, 4700 River Road, Unit 87,
Riverdale, MD 207371234.
To file a complaint, write the Secretary of Agriculture, U.S.
Department of Agriculture, Washington, DC 20250, or call (800)
2456340 (voice) or (202) 7201127 (TDD). USDA is an equal employment
opportunity employer.
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