Forest Faunal Systems

Some Consequences of a Concept of Maximum Wildlife Production

Robert H. Giles, Jr. and Patrick F. Scanlon

The concept of maximum wildlife production is a useful point of discussion if not a necessary basis for decision making in wildlife planning and management. To achieve maximum production requires that the fullest possibilities of the system or species under study be considered. The concept is demanding.

We perceive that the average manager tends to consider only the known conditions or levels of production and to balk at considering other possibilities. The ideas put forth in this appendix may serve as examples which might help slow that tendency. They are offered, not necessarily for field practicability, but to stimulate thought in directions which ultimately may result in more exciting and dynamic setting of objectives for faunal resource management systems. Failure to think past the known and to attempt to extend ideas will certainly limit faunal system management and the likely benefits to humans from the resource.

Modern animal agriculture provides many vivid examples of "how far" animal management can evolve. The evolution of animal management was painfully slow but rapid progress has been made in the last two to three decades. Wildlifers have neglected many experiences with domestic animals in developing their understanding and management of wild animals. Yet all domestic animals were once wild; some still are - every horse has to be far cry from its wild brought under control. The production-model turkey is counterpart. It has been subjected to considerable genetic improvement, its plumage is white, and some breeds are double muscled. As such, they must be procreated by artificial insemination. The typical turkey is bred, hatched, and raised artificially. Similarly, broiler chickens have been developed so as to be quite unlike the parent jungle fowl.

As for poultry, discussing one aspect of cattle reproduction management may be relevant to wildlife production, particularly that of big game. Our example highlights the idea of a objectives-oriented system. The example is presented as an analog for creative formation of analogies by the faunal resource manager. Cattle serve as analogs for other ungulates and are easily conceived as models for elk and deer.

We think it is useful to ponder the progressive application of knowledge of reproductive physiology of male cattle alone to the genetic improvement of cattle populations. In dairy cattle management, a bull's genes and in a sense the bull is only useful as a producer of semen, and hence, genes. The process of spermatogenesis requires about 60 days from initiation to final maturation of the spermatozoan cell. An average of 38 billion spermatozoa are produced per cell. An average of 38 billion spermatozoa are produced per week. The range is 25.65 billion per week.

After selecting a bull for breeding purposes, managing artificial insemination consists of (1) optimum feeding of the animal so he attains puberty as early as possible, and (2) development of schedules for optimum harvesting of spermatozoa as early as possible. Five hundred artificial insemination doses are used to provide the 50 to 70 heifers needed for a reliable proof. At approximately 6 years of age, proofs are available and the proven bull is placed in regular service. Developing the spermatozoan-harvesting strategy includes setting up a collection schedule which neither allows waste of available spermatozoa by insufficient collections, nor production of immature spermatozoa by too-frequent collection. Attention is also paid to manipulating the behavior of bulls to allow maximum collection per ejaculation and to provide appropriate rations, exercise, and health care. Semen from bulls is diluted and frozen for preservation and anticipated future use. The considerations in this part of the subsystem are to allow maximum fertilization rates of cows bred with the thawed semen. Buffers and cryoprotective agents are added to the diluted semen before freezing to minimize loss of spermatozoan viability. In diluting the semen, adjustments are made for abnormal spermatozoan cells and from an anticipated loss of cells during the freezing process. For instance, it is necessary to provide 15 million live spermatozoa per insemination under normal conditions. To achieve this, 30 to 35 million spermatozoa must be utilized per dose if freezing of spermatozoa was done in glass samples, and 25 to 28 million spermatozoa if in plastic straws. A weekly minimum of 1,000 doses of semen for artificial insemination is thus possible.

In some systems, while waiting for test results on initial progeny of bulls, semen is continually harvested and stored. This is done because the level of investment to this point is best recouped by ultimately making maximum use of the best bulls.

The management task is simultaneously and interactively to maximize the screening process for new bulls, to get an accurate proof on all bulls, to maximize quantity and quality of spermatozoan production, to optimize spermatozoan number per artificial insemination dose, to minimize loss of spermatozoan viability in cold storage, to minimize handling costs of semen in storage, to maximize non-return rates (i.e., pregnancy rates) of cows by proper training and motivation of artificial insemination technicians, and to minimize culling rate of cows while maximizing milk production. All of this must be done sequential and some simultaneously relative to the probabilistic changes in the dairy markets, consumer demands, feed costs, labor costs, and technology changes 5 to 10 years after initiation of the bull's testing. This major, complex problem is only one subsystem in the total, modern, single species dairy industry and is centered on manipulating only one sex of the species. Parallels exist for all aspects of agricultural production including manipulation and large-scale proliferation of gametes of female dairy cattle. It is our contention that similar parallels exist for the multi-species wild fauna management system.

The benefits of considering a complex production system such as that just described for cattle are that it provides insights into the depth and breadth of knowledge in that area and the results of rapidly applying recently acquired knowledge. A parallel benefit is an appreciation for the large costs incurred in gaining that knowledge. People involved in faunal conservation quickly realize that, relatively speaking, they know almost nothing. They do not know enough about the animals and systems with which they are concerned to perform similarly. They have relatively few funds for research, and they have limited prospects of obtaining research funds to attain the levels of knowledge necessary for successful management and planning.

Some solutions seem evident:

1. Faunal resource managers must be more original and more imaginative than those operating in related, better supported fields.
2. Novel investigations, both in topic and technique, are needed. Basic knowledge needs to be discovered and synthesized. The field is now largely a user science and is dependent on others. It probably can develop basic knowledge for its own use.
3. Greater use must be made of existing and parallel knowledge from areas that are better studied and supported than wildlife science and management.
4. Improved strategies must be developed for gaining the financial resources needed and more effectively using them to acquire the knowledge which is needed for optimizing a faunal management system.
5. Attention must be paid in training researchers to impress on them the need for 1, 2, and 3 above.

Greater attention than at present must be paid to reporting research results (Scanlon et al. 1977). This relates to both written and oral reporting. The disciplines with the great accumulations of knowledge have excellent journals and excellent meetings where research reports are presented with appropriate discussion and criticism. Such meetings provide opportunities for critical input from peers in research, stimulate efficiency through demonstrating use of analogous techniques, provide information exchange earlier than can be done with publications, reduce duplication of research, reduce research fund waste, and extend the usefulness of limited funds in solving faunal and related environmental management problems.

In 2003 Don C. Bragg (Southern J. Appl. Forestry 27(1):5-10, reported on optimal diameter growth equations for major tree species of the midsouth. Similar expressions of upper bounds for plants and animals in ecosystems seem to be needed.

Dr. Pat Scanlon died in the field while working on a project with a graduate student and Dr. Michael Vaughan in 2003.

This Web site is maintained by R. H. Giles, Jr.
Last revision January 17, 2000.