Principles of Wildlife Management in Montana

WILDLIFE MANAGEMENT CONCEPTS

Because most wildlife species are very sensitive to changes in their surroundings, they can give us clues about changes that might affect us, too. Have some animals disappeared because of pollution? Is there enough food or the right kind of food to eat?

By studying wildlife, we can learn more about where they live, why they live there and how where they live is important to them. You'll also start to appreciate all animals more - game and nongame alike. And you'll see how important wildlife management is to making sure that you - and other people - always have wildlife to benefit from and enjoy.

If you look in a school text book, you'll see that WILDLIFE MANAGEMENT is defined as "the science and art of managing wildlife and its habitat, for the benefit of the soil, vegetation and animals, including humans."

But how do wildlife managers do that? They do it by following a few basic rules:

• Good wildlife management must be based on solid 
  biological information.

• Good wildlife management must include the management of humans, because our activities affect wildlife.

• Good wildlife management must benefit plants and other animals not just one species of wildlife.

• Good wildlife management must put animal numbers at a level we can live with - not too many and not too few.

• Good wildlife management must balance animal numbers with the habitat (food, shelter, water and space) available for those animals.

• Good wildlife management must balance conservation (wise use) of the resource - not total preservation (non-use) of the resource.