US Geological Survey
Date of this Version
1982
Abstract
The profession of wildlife management has had an incomplete evolution into wildlife ecology if we are to believe that names of university departments accurately reflect current status. This transition implies less emphasis on doing and greater emphasis on understanding. I term the evolution incomplete because wildlife biologists have not fully embraced all the tools of ecology. One such tool is population ecology. Certainly we have studied wildlife population dynamics, but often with a narrow focus, viewing as unique a particular group of animals in a certain area at some specified time. Less often have we endeavored to draw together our knowledge into a comprehensive theory of more general applicability. Alan A. Berryman, a forest entomologist with a background in population dynamics, has successfully organized a theory of population ecology based on the mathematical theory of systems analysis.
Comments
Published in The Journal of Wildlife Management 46(4):1982.