Managing Wildlife Resources (1975)

color see [ __ ] is pharmaceuticals [Music] ciba-geigy is plastics and additive and most of all Pagani is people thousands of people thousands of products all dedicated to making life better the science screen report is proudly presented by ciba-geigy [Music] [Music] the science green report bringing you each month the latest discoveries developments and applications of science engineering and medicine made to help solve the problems of modern life [Music] [Music] in the deep woods in the dead of winter the snow has buried plants and shrubs and sprouts and sealed off acorns and other forest [Music] the deer population has consumed all the natural browse available and our knowing its saplings and even the bark of small trees [Music] this is no nourishment for a deer the end result is starvation the fate of thousands of North American deer every winter to better manage the world's wildlife scientists in the United States Canada and other nations are carrying out many investigations aimed at preserving this precious natural resource [Music] until a few thousand years ago man lived in dynamic equilibrium with the other animals and plants and had little effect on the Earth's ecosystems but perhaps as early as the ice ages ten thousand years past and certainly within the last few centuries man has decimated the wildlife around him both directly through hunting and trapping and indirectly by expanding into animal and plant habitats [Music] the United States sportsmen President Theodore Roosevelt helped to organize some of the first systematic wildlife management programs restricting hunting establishing refuges setting up government bureaus to protect Fish and Game the animal populations of North America have been substantially altered by these programs white-tailed deer down to a few hundred thousand by 1895 multiplied until there are now ten million across the continent [Music] the elk population was 50,000 in 1910 now there are several hundred thousand [Music] in 1935 only 73 trumpeter swans were counted now their population has so increased the species is no longer considered endangered [Music] because ducks and geese and other waterfowl migrate over the continent Mexico Canada and the United States entered into international treaties designed to manage their migratory resources [Music] the graceful prairie pronghorns have also made a comeback in all these programs scientists sportsmen and government officials work to save these species [Music] today professional wildlife managers are using a wide variety of techniques to improve the North American biome in Pennsylvania wild turkeys are netted and reek aided in parts of the state which lacked turkey colonies specially engineered radio senders are used to track the birds through the winter revealing where they go and what kind of food and shelter they prefer much was learned about improving wild turkey habitats helping them back from the edge of extinction [Music] at the Massachusetts Fish and Game Commission headquarters pheasants are hatched from eggs in the same manner as commercial chickens the pheasant originally imported from China cannot be tamed these hatchery birds will be used to supplement the wild pheasant population which is decreased due to urban spread Connecticut natural ists and others have designed many kinds of experimental nesting boxes to help restore the woods duck population the ducklings leave the boxes shortly after hatching they know how to swim instinctively where natural nesting sites have been destroyed the experiments have shown the same Ducks will nest in the special boxes the unbuckling x' will eventually use the boxes when they are ready to nest these management techniques have helped save the woods duck from extinction [Music] to learn more about seals the National Research Council of Canada is funding University of Guelph scientists to study these aquatic manners these scientists utilizing humane procedures have learned that seals can hear much better underwater than people and can stay submerged for up to half an hour at a time by expelling the air from their lungs and stopping their heartbeat the seals natural diet of fish is supplemented with vitamins to keep them in top condition the information gathered is helping Canada and other nations to better maintain their steel herds [Music] in another wildlife research program Colorado scientists sponsored by the National Science Foundation are studying various aspects of pronghorn antelope ecology in a special program scientists are conditioning pronghorns to accept the presence of field researchers the procedure begins in June when the antelope fawns are born from a hilltop the research team can easily observe the prairie below when a nursing fawn is located a watch begins [Music] a spotting scope is used since fawns drop back into the vegetation after nursing making them difficult to see from a distance meanwhile a caching team is directed to the farm [Music] when a fawn senses danger it remains motionless this behavior pattern lasts only a few days so the scientists must work swiftly [Music] a doe normally has twins but the researchers only take one leaving the other for the mother to raise [Music] the Fonz are then taken to rearing pens at Colorado State University they are given antibody and vitamin shots to help prevent disease and build up body defenses during the first two weeks the fawns are given a special milk formula four times a day the conditioning of the young antelope begins soon after attracted to the food they grow accustomed to being loaded onto a trailer after the first two weeks the antelope are regularly transported 50 kilometres to the grasslands [Music] the Fonz never go far from their trainer and after a few hours of natural activity they're taken back to the research path [Music] throughout the program the animals are involved in energy use studies they are placed in metabolic chambers where basic body functions are compared with those of cattle and other domesticated stuff the scientists continuously monitor oxygen consumed and carbon dioxide and other gases release as the animals are exposed to the range of temperatures in their natural environment the test showed antelope can compensate for the stresses of temperature extremes better than livestock they are also more efficient in digesting their food [Music] in the field observers record plant species eaten parts consumed and numbers of bytes taken such close observations would be impossible with wild antelope observers then collect plant samples which provide data about the animals diet both tame and wild pronghorns most of their nutrition from weeds and shrubs while cattle primarily eat grass the result is little competition for food the pronghorns are weighed daily and their growth rates compared with domestic cat [Music] pronghorns consume natural vegetation with supplementary winter feeding and so may produce protein more economically than cattle more over utilization of both on some grasslands since they do not compete for food could also increase food production in several parts of the world [Music] [Music] the world's wildlife constitutes a precious renewable resource a potentially endless supply of food a basic element of the world's life-sustaining ecosystem and a major source of scientific knowledge systemic plant and animal investigations and wildlife management programs are thus vital to man's future well-being [Music] science screen report has been presented by ciba-geigy corporation with headquarters in Ardsley New York as part of its continuing program in support of science education [Music]