Wildlife science is the study of wild animals and their habitats, with the aim of understanding and managing them. Traditionally “wildlife” meant wild vertebrates, especially mammals and birds that people hunted. Today the term usually covers all wild animals, and wildlife scientists work on everything from frogs and bats to whales and butterflies.
What you will learn
- How wildlife management began and how it has changed
- The difference between wildlife management, conservation biology and animal ecology
- The main jobs wildlife biologists do
- The core principles that guide modern wildlife conservation
From hunting reserves to wildlife science
People have managed wildlife for thousands of years. Ancient rulers in Persia, India, China and Europe set aside hunting reserves, and many of today’s protected areas, such as Białowieża Forest in Poland and Ranthambore in India, began as royal hunting grounds. Traditional societies around the world also developed rules about when, where and how much to hunt or fish.
Modern wildlife management grew out of a crisis. In the nineteenth century, commercial hunting wiped out the passenger pigeon and nearly wiped out the American bison, the southern white rhino and many whales. In response:
- Game laws, hunting seasons and bag limits were introduced in many countries.
- National parks were created, starting with Yellowstone in 1872, and game reserves were set up across Africa and Asia in the early twentieth century.
- In 1933, the American ecologist Aldo Leopold published Game Management, often seen as the founding text of wildlife management as a science. Leopold later argued in A Sand County Almanac (1949) for a “land ethic” in which people are members, not conquerors, of the land community.
For much of the twentieth century, wildlife management focused on game species: producing deer, ducks and fish for hunters and anglers, and controlling predators. From the 1970s, the focus widened to include endangered species, biodiversity and whole ecosystems, and in the 1980s conservation biology emerged as a distinct science (see Ecology Module 13).
Related fields
| Field | Main question | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Wildlife ecology | How do animals interact with their environment? | How rainfall affects antelope calving |
| Wildlife management | How should we manage populations and habitats to meet goals? | Setting a sustainable deer harvest |
| Conservation biology | How can we prevent extinctions and protect biodiversity? | A recovery plan for the vaquita |
| Animal behaviour (ethology) | Why do animals behave as they do? | Why meerkats post sentinels |
| Human dimensions of wildlife | How do people value, use and affect wildlife? | Attitudes of farmers to lions |
What wildlife biologists do
Wildlife biologists work for government agencies, national parks, NGOs, universities, consultancies and tourism companies. Typical work includes:
- Surveys and monitoring: counting animals with camera traps, transects, aerial surveys and acoustic recorders (Module 6).
- Research: studying behaviour, movement, diet, disease and population trends.
- Habitat management: controlling fire and invasive plants, restoring wetlands, creating corridors.
- Species recovery: breeding programmes, translocations and reintroductions (Module 13).
- Conflict management: working with communities to reduce crop and livestock losses (Module 11).
- Policy and law enforcement: advising governments, assessing environmental impacts and fighting wildlife crime (Module 14).
- Education and tourism: guiding, interpretation and outreach.
Principles of modern wildlife conservation
- Science-based decisions: management should be guided by the best available evidence and monitored to check it works (adaptive management).
- Habitat first: most species decline because they lose habitat; protecting and connecting habitat is usually the most effective action.
- Whole ecosystems: managing one species affects others, so plans consider predators, prey and processes such as fire and flooding.
- People matter: conservation succeeds when local communities benefit and have a voice.
- Precaution: when the risk of irreversible harm is high, act before all the evidence is in.
Case study: the North American model and its critics
In the United States and Canada, wildlife is legally held in public trust, and hunting licence fees and taxes on guns and ammunition have funded state wildlife agencies for decades. Supporters credit this “North American Model of Wildlife Conservation” with restoring species such as white-tailed deer, wild turkeys and elk. Critics point out that it has historically favoured game species over non-game animals and that funding is falling as hunter numbers decline. The debate shows how funding and values shape which wildlife gets protected.
Try it yourself
Find out which government body manages wildlife in your country or region, and what its main laws are. List three species it manages and whether each is hunted, protected or both.
Key terms
- Wildlife management: the science and practice of managing wild animal populations and habitats to meet goals.
- Game species: animals legally hunted for sport or food.
- Adaptive management: learning by doing; adjusting management as monitoring shows what works.
- Land ethic: Aldo Leopold’s idea that people have a moral duty to the land community.
Quick quiz
Further reading
- Leopold, A. (1949). A Sand County Almanac.
- Krausman, P. R. and Cain, J. W. (eds.) (2022). Wildlife Management and Conservation: Contemporary Principles and Practices.