Wildlife management

The emphatic presence of us, human beings, decreases wildlife habitats, food sources and roaming space. Cities,  villages, roads, highways and canals form unnatural barriers and orginally natural barriers like rivers are kept in place and deep for shipping. 

Forestry and agriculture increase in scale and intensity. Creating more monocultures, less natural diversity and either too much or too little cover.

Logically some species of animals profit greatly, while others suffer greatly from this development.

Culture followers and culture fleers

Predators and pests are usually in the first category while prey animals often form the latter.

Because of this polarisation the unbalance increases over time and if nothing is done. Will lead to overpopulations of some species, underpopulations of others. An increase in animal diseases and pests. Not to mention more traffic accidents, raised food prices etcetera. 

To manage this conflict and keep things from spinning out of control you need wildlife management.

Wildlife management goals

Wildlife management entails much more than just killing animals. The common goals are as follows:

1. Decreases damage to roads and dikes;
2. Population management: keeping the population of culture followers low and increasing the population of culture fleers;
3. Decreasing damage to agriculture and aquaculture;
4. Decreasing and preventing traffic accidents, especially with large game like deer and boar;
5. Putting wounded animals outof their missery (traffic victims for example)
6. Containing and eradicating animal diseases, especially zoonoses (Animald diseases that can be transmitted to humans)

As you can see ‘decreasing’ is the common concept here. Animal species don’t have to and should not be eradicated. Some foxes in your area are fine, just not so much that the end result is unacceptabel for both the humans and other wildlife. 

Hunting is a natural part of the solution but definitely not the 'is all, end all'. Creating varied food sources and cover for culture fleers is just as important as decreasing the number of predators in the area. Hunters often work together with farmers to create a more varied habitat and most farmers have bits of land scattered throughout their fields that are perfectly suited for this without impacting their livelyhood. Don’t forget, farmers live in nature and enjoy the sight of wildlife just as much as you do.

To keep traffic accidents down hunters often place reflectors at the side of the road. This will alert the game that something is happening and the chance of them crossing the road decreases.

Do you eat meat from animals shot for wildlife management?

Yes! Whenever possible and healthy you eat the meat and use the animal to the fullest. It’s a live that you’ve taken so you’re responsible to use the harvest to the fullest. It doesn’t matter if the main concern was food or wildlife management.