Landscape ecology and wildlife management

Abstract

In his seminal book Game Management (1933: 128–129), Aldo Leopold set the stage for a marriage between landscape ecology and wildlife management: The game must usually be able to reach each of the essential types each day. The maximum population of any given piece of land depends, therefore, not only on its environmental types or composition, but also on the interspersion of these types in relation to the cruising radius of the species. Composition and interspersion are thus the two principal determinants of potential abundance on game range … Management of game range is largely a matter of determining the environmental requirements and cruising radius of the possible species of game, and then manipulating the composition and interspersion of types on the land, so as to increase the density of its game population. Although Leopold did not explicitly mention landscape ecology, he definitely introduced a landscape ecological perspective to wildlife management, at a time in history when ivory-billed woodpeckers ( Campephilus principalis ) still roamed swamp forests in Louisiana. Thirty years later radiotelemetry was made generally available, opening up a new era in wildlife biology. Now wildlife managers could see for themselves how the wildlife was moving around in the landscape. Some 70 years since Leopold's book, and 40 years since radiotelemetry was introduced, what is the state of the art? Have wildlife managers grasped the concepts of landscape ecology? Have landscape ecologists found wildlife management an interesting arena in which to play out their scientific endeavors?