Sustainable Wildlife Management

While the average citizen may not see any actions taken by the City of Winnipeg to address the issue of wildlife overpopulation, urban wildlife biologists are aware of these challenges and are examining methods to address them. Unfortunately, due to the lack of resources, results may not be seen for some time.

Urban Wildlife Biologist, Dr. Erin McCance, believes the societal mindset regarding co-existence with wildlife needs to be re-adjusted in order that sustainable solutions can be reached. In addition to this, citizens need to be aware of the far-reaching implications of their actions as regards wildlife. Lastly, by understanding the importance of this issue, scientists and designers can work in conjunction with the public to create sustainable management and design solutions.

After interviewing a number of Winnipeggers, it became apparent that the majority are unaware of overpopulation issues or are complacent as to whether or not actions to should taken to manage the current situation.

Wildlife Corridor

Upon conducting research regarding this subject, it became obvious that effective management and design solutions are imminently needed by the City of Winnipeg. While each citizen can participate in this process of responsible management by making choices such as landscaping their yards with native plants that are repellent to deer and geese, the city must also make critical decisions as a whole. By connecting habitat fragments, such as the Assiniboine Forest, with wildlife corridors, biodiversity can be maintained and altercations between wildlife and people will be minimized.

References

Adams, Lindsey, Ash. Urban Wildlife Management. Boca Raton: Taylor and Francis Group, 2006. 

Beardsley, John. Designing Wildlife Habitats. Washington, D.C.: Sheridan Books, 2013. 

Lallanilla, Marc. Population Control is One of Many Benefits of Hunting. Green Living, 2013. Retrieved from

 http://greenliving.about.com/od/greenlivingbasics/a/Benefits-Of-Hunting.htm

Manitoba Conservation, Government of Manitoba. MPI Statistics, Human-Wildlife Conflict (brochure), 2013. Retrieved from http://www.gov.mb.ca/conservation/wildlife/problem_wildlife/wildlife_vehicle.html

McCance, Dr. Erin. November 15, 2014, Winnipeg Wildlife Issues. Interviewed by Beauregard, Chung, Coker, and Wang. In person. Wallace Building, University of Manitoba. 

Pursell, Allen. Too Many Deer: a Bigger Threat to Eastern Forests than Climate Change? The Nature Conservancy, 2013. Retrieved from http://blog.nature.org/science/2013/08/22/too-many-deer/.

Rooney, Thomas. What do we do with too many whitetail deer? Actionbioscience, 2010. Retrieved from http://www.actionbioscience.org/biodiversity/rooney.html

Seunarine, Ian K. Strategies for Urban Wildlife Management in Manitoba: A Case Study of the City of Winnipeg, 1994.

Smith, Craven, and Curtis. Managing Canada Geese in Urban Environments A Technical Gide. Smith, A. E., S. R. Craven, and P. D. Curtis. Managing Canada geese in urban environment. Jack Berryman Institute Publication 16, and Cornell University Cooperative Extension, Ithaca, N.Y, 1999.Retrieved from

http://dspace.library.cornell.edu/retrieve/61/%E2%80%8E

Smithsonian. "Geese Involved In Hudson River Plane Crash Were Migratory." ScienceDaily. 2009. Retrieved from www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/06/090608125059.htm. 

White-tailed Deer-Odocoileus virginianus. Nature Works, 2013. Retrieved from www.nhptv.org/natureworks/whitetaileddeer.htm.