Wildlife Management

Wildlife Management

Your Wildlife Management Career Begins Here!
Join our many graduates who enrolled in this most popular course and gone onto to being Wildlife Managers.

This course establishes sound Wildlife Management skills, practices and knowledge. More importantly the course will help you develop problem solving skills that are respected by employers but, not often found by other graduates on competency based courses.

What Can Wildlife Management Do For You?
This course will give you a very solid foundation in the principals of Wildlife Management and also, help you to develop your practical skills.

What You Will Learn From Wildlife Management?
To develop your understanding of the principals and importance of Wildlife Management to the environment
To recognise the importance of Ecology
To understand Wildlife Habitats
To comprehend and understand the dynamics of population
To determine how Carrying Capacity effects wildlife and what it is and how it effects population
To identify and implement Wildlife Censuses
To apply the principals of Wild Life Management Techniques
To understand Wildlife Management Law and Administration
To produce a Wildlife Management Case Study Research Project

This Wildlife Management online distance learning course is a must course for anyone who wishes to work to conserve wildlife whether it's in the wild, in zoos or working with breeding programs. Wildlife management is the manipulation of wild animal populations and their habitats for the benefit of both humans and wildlife. Wildlife management includes running parks and reserves, altering and rehabilitating wildlife habitats, pest control, protecting human life and property and managing harvests of wildlife.

Controlling populations of wildlife may take one of the following forms: Managing wildlife habitats Managing people Managing individual animals in populations to either change or cause a population to remain constant. The techniques and types of wildlife management vary depending on your location, and as with any job, you will find that you will need to carry out research into the local methods and types of wildlife management. This course is designed to give students a broad based introduction to the principles and practices of wildlife management common to many species around the globe.

" Hello!
I’m currently studying the module Wildlife Management and I’m so glad I found ADL, since their style of education evolves around PBL (Problem based Learning), which is a learning method that really suits me.
The contents of the module are very interesting and thought-provoking. I just love it! I’m nearly finishing it. My next module would be… Primatology? or…Nature Park Management? They are all so fascinating!
BTW, my tutor is great and very inspiring, always available to answer my queries.
ADL is the answer. Go for it!" Lidia, Wildlife Management, UK

Lesson Structure: Wildlife Management BEN205

There are 9 lessons:

1. Introduction to Wildlife Management
   • What is Wildlife Management
   • Approaches to Wildlife Management (Preservation, Conservation, Management)
   • Purpose of Wildlife Management
   • Goals
   • Decision Making (Who makes decisions, Making good decisions)
   • Needs of Wildlife
   • What’s a Good Habitat
   • Limiting factor
   • Carrying capacity
   • Landscape Fragmentation
   • Habitat Diversity
   • Arrangement
   • Biological Control
   • Integrated Pest Management
2. Wildlife Ecology
   • Ecology (Mutualism, Commensalisms, Competition, Predation, parasitism, herbivoury)
   • Behavioural Ecology
   • Population Ecology
   • Community Ecology
   • Ecosystem Ecology
   • Interactions within a Community
   • Competition
   • Predation
   • Parasitism
   • Commensalism
   • Mutualism
   • The Food Web (Derital Web,
   • Grazing Web, Trophic Levels)
   • Energy Flow
   • Imbalances
3. Wildlife Habitats
   • Introduction
   • Classification of Habitats
   • Biomes, Ecosystems, Microclimates
   • Timbered Biomes (Boreal Forest/ Taiga, Temperate Forest, Tropical Forest, Woodland)
   • Scrubland
   • Tropical Savannah
   • Temperate Grassland
   • Artic Tundra
   • Alpine
   • Semi-desert
   • Desert
   • Man Made Biomes (Urban, Agricultural)
   • Wet Biomes (Mangrove, Rivers, Benthos, Pelagic, Continental Shelf, Coral Reef,
   • Animal Use of Features in Biomes (Trees, Logs, Surface Rocks and Ground Cover, Creeks, Wetlands and Dams)
   • Case Studies
   • Changes to Habitats (Physical, Biological, Pollution)
   • Water for Wildlife
   • Siting Water Points
   • Managing Trees
   • Deforestation
   • Afforestation
4. Population Dynamics
   • Populations
   • Birth or Fecundity Rate
   • Death or Mortality Rate
   • Growth Rate
   • Life Tables
   • Cohort or Dynamic Life Tables (Age Specific)
   • Static or Time Specific Life Tables
   • Rodents
   • Squirrels
   • Rabbits
   • Mosquitoes
   • Grasshoppers
   • Case Studies of different animals in different countries
5. Carrying Capacity
   • Introduction
   • Exponential Population Growth
   • What is Carrying Capacity
   • Fisheries stock management (stock Identification, assessment, biomass)
   • Stock Management Methods
6. Wildlife Censuses
   • Introduction and census types
   • Total Counts
   • Sampling (Simple Random, Stratified Random, Systemic, Two Stage, Double sampling)
   • Accuracy vs Precision
   • Bias Errors
   • Aerial Surveys
   • Trapping
   • Transects
   • Indirect Methods
   • Mark-Recapture method
   • Roadside and Call Counts
   • Mapping
   • Sampling methods for specific types of animals (ie. Fish, Amphibians, Reptiles, Birds, Invertebrates, Mammals etc.)
   • Animal Ethics
   • Case Study
7. Wildlife Management Techniques
   • Habitat Modification
   • Fire
   • Vegetation Management
   • Predator Control
   • Habitat Features
   • Seeding
   • Population Monitoring
   • Captive Breeding and Release
   • Culling and Cropping
   • Control of pest or undesirable wildlife species
   • Control Objectives
   • Effects of Control
   • Control Techniques (Manipulating mortality, fertility, Genetiv Engineering, indirect methods)
8. Wildlife Management Law and Administration
   • Policy and Wildlife Law
   • International Environmental Law
   • Treaties
   • International Customary Laws
   • Hard vs Soft Law
   • Domestic/National Law
   • Evolving Domestic Law
   • Sources of Legislation
   • Environmental Ethics
   • Enforcement
9. Wildlife Management Case Study Research Project
   • Problem Based Learning Project with following aims:
   • Identify the objectives of a management program for an endangered species.
   • Determine appropriate techniques for carrying out a census of an endangered species.
   • Identify techniques for increasing the population of the endangered species.
   • Identify pest species and their undesirable effect on the endangered species of bird.
   • Identify techniques for reducing the undesirable impacts of the pest species on the endangered bird.
   • Present a management plan in a form that is appropriate for use by wildlife workers.

Please Note: Each lesson culminates in an assignment which is submitted to the school, marked by the school's tutors and returned to you with any relevant suggestions, comments, and if necessary, extra reading.

Learning Goals: Wildlife Management BEN205

• Develop a concept of how man manages wildlife populations in different situations around the world.
• Understand and discuss the principles of wildlife ecology.
• Understand wildlife habitats and their importance to managing wildlife.
• Explain how populations of any one species change and adapt to variations in their environment.
• Understand carrying capacity and its importance in managing wildlife populations.
• Explain a range of different methods used to determine the number of individuals in a wildlife population.
• Discuss a range of different wildlife management techniques.
• To understand the potentials and limitations of legal and administrative initiatives, in the pursuance of more effective wildlife management.
• Examine a specific wildlife management case of interest to the student.

Practicals:

• Contact (either in person, email or by telephone) an organisation involved in wildlife management such as a National Park,
  wildlife reserve, zoo, etc to research their wildlife management program.
• In your locality, find out about one pest species of wildlife and one endangered or threatened species of native wildlife. Research
  what happened to make these animals pests or endangered.
• Visit a natural area in your locality and observe the organisms in the area and their interactions with each other and the environment.
• Explain what trophic levels are and how energy flows between them.
• Define habitat, biome, vegetation formation and feeding radius.
• Visit a zoo, wildlife park, game reserve, pet shop, fauna sanctuary or other place where wild animals are kept in captivity to observe the
  animals in their captive surroundings and compare these with their native surroundings.
• Identify a predator-prey relationship between two species in a local ecosystem and make predictions about changes to this relationship.
• Research the difference between r and K strategists in animals.
• Design a wildlife survey using a suitable sampling technique. Write this survey up as a mini scientific report containing an Abstract/Project
  Summary, Methods and materials section, Results/Discussion and Conclusion.
• Research the success of one wildlife program where wildlife have been bred in captivity and then released.
• Draw up a table that lists the advantages and disadvantages of allowing hunting to proceed in game parks where the animals being
  hunted are native to the area.
• Telephone or contact a wildlife management agency in your area to determine the relevant local, regional, national and international laws
  that apply to wildlife in your locality.
• Prepare a report of no less than 1000 words on a population of animals surveyed during the course.
• Telephone or contact a wildlife management agency in your area to determine the relevant local, regional, national and international laws
  that apply to wildlife in your locality.
• Prepare a report of no less than 1000 words on a population of animals surveyed during the course.

Please Note: Each lesson culminates in an assignment which is submitted to the Academy, marked by the Academy's tutors
and returned to you with any relevant suggestions, comments, and if necessary, extra reading.

Anyone who wants to pursue a career in wildlife management, or already doing so.

None.

Career and Job Opportunites May Include:
Wildlife Management Jobs encompass: organising surveys either for wildlife or ecological purposes, as a ranger located in the countryside, keeping track of the movements of wildlife habitats and their populations, seeing that animals are protected from man-made disasters, treatment of sick or injured animals, game keeping, zookeeper, and zoologist.