Wildlife Habitat Management
Outcomes
WSCI 6387
Lecture 1
Introduction to Wildlife Habitat
Management
© Timothy Edward Fulbright
Caesar Kleberg Wildlife Research Institute
Kingsville, Texas 78363
Timothy.fulbright@tamuk.edu
Overview of Course
„ Lecture: Two Basic Sections
„ Basic concepts
„ Applied habitat management
„ Two field trips
Objectives of Lecture
„ Introduce the habitat concept
„ Importance of habitat loss
„ Discuss contemporary ideas on standardization
of terminology regarding habitat
„ Discuss the importance of ecological niche
relationships in understanding why animals
select certain habitats
Pre-test for Student Learner
„ Answer each question as best you can
„ This is not for a grade
Overview of Course
„ Student presentations
„ Topics
„ 15-minute powerpoint presentation
„ Term paper
„ Graded by instructor and class
„ 2 exams + final
„ Review of syllabus
Important Points
„ The term ‘habitat’ is often misused
„ The term habitat type should be avoided in
discussions of wildlife-habitat relationships
„ Habitat management should be conceptualized and
applied at the landscape level
„ Animals and their habitat coevolved, so human-
imposed changes may have dramatic effects
„ Researchers should measure factors that explain why
organisms select a certain site, not just document that
they do so
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 Reading
„ Chapters 1-3 in Morrison et al. 2006. Wildlife-
habitat relationships: concepts and applications, 3rd
edition. Island Press, Washington.
„ Morrison, M.L. 2001. A proposed research emphasis
to overcome the limits of wildlife-habitat relationship
studies. Journal of Wildlife Management 65:613-
623.
„ Hall, L.S., P.R. Krausman, and M.L. Morrison. 1997.
The habitat concept and a plea for standardized
terminology. Wildlife Society Bulletin 25: 173-182.
„ Guthery, F. S. 1997. A philosophy of habitat
management for northern bobwhites. Journal of
Wildlife Management 61:291-301
Habitat Loss & Degradation
„ Fahrig, L. 1997. Relative effects of habitat loss and
fragmentation on population extinction. Journal of
Wildlife Management 61:603-610.
„ Wennergren (1995) suggests how habitats are
arranged in space can mitigate the risks of species
extinctions from habitat loss
„ Effects of habitat loss far outweigh effects of habitat
fragmentation
„ Details of how habitats are arranged cannot usually
mitigate the risks of habitat loss
„ Conservation efforts should be aimed foremost at
stopping habitat loss and at habitat restoration
Habitat Loss & Degradation
„ 50% of the land in Texas “set aside” for
conservation is in 2 counties in west Texas
(primarily Chihuahuan Desert)
„ 87-94% of land in Texas privately owned
Habitat Loss & Degradation
„ Loss of habitat is the most significant threat to
wildlife conservation in the United States
„ Habitat loss is the major cause of declines in
wildlife populations
Habitat Loss & Degradation
„ Texas – 133 million acres of wildlife habitat
remain
„ Texas - 178,700 rural acres/year from 1992 to
1997 were converted to urban use
„ Rate of habitat loss is accelerating as the
human population continues to increase.
Habitat Loss & Degradation
„ In addition to the accelerating loss of habitat, the
quality of the remaining habitat is being degraded by
a variety of factors, including fragmentation as larger
ranches are continually broken up into smaller
ranches and ranchettes, oil and gas activity,
construction of wind farms, range management
practices such as brush control directed at increasing
livestock production, and excessive livestock grazing.
„ The rate of habitat degradation and consequent loss of
wildlife species and numbers of animals is difficult to
quantify.
2
 Habitat
„ “The resources and conditions present in an
area that produce occupancy – including
survival and reproduction – by a given
organism (Hall et al. 1997).
„ Habitat quality is “the ability of the
environment to provide conditions appropriate
for individual and population persistence” Hall
et al. (1997).

Habitat Habitat
„ Habitat is species specific „ ‘Classical’ habitat components
„ Statements like “this is good wildlife habitat” „ Food
are misleading „ Cover
„ For example „ Water
„ Good white-tailed deer habitat may be poor mule „ Space
deer habitat
„ Good habitat for lark sparrows is poor habitat for
olive sparrows

Habitat Habitat
„ Vegetation is a central component of wildlife „ Cover types
habitat „ Security or hiding cover
„ Provides cover and food for omnivores, „ Thermal cover
herbivores, frugivores, and granivores „ Loafing (resting) cover/coverts
„ Cover may also be provided by landscape
features such as rocks

3
 Habitat
„ Most wildlife species require surface water
„ Many desert species can survive on metabolic
or preformed water in food items
„ E.g., Kangaroo rats
Habitat
„ Usable space is a ‘useful’ concept (Guthery
1997)
„ Commonly, not all of the landscape is usable
as habitat for a given organism
„ Important to take into account habitat that is
not usable

Habitat Habitat
„ Example „ Usable space an important concept when
„ Northern Brush making decisions regarding carrying capacity
bobwhites
„ Portion of the landscape that is not usable
„ Center of should not be considered in calculating
buffelgrass
fields are not
Buffelgrass carrying capacity of an area
usable space „ For example, if you have 10,000 acres but only
8,000 acres is usable space, carrying capacity
should be calculated based on 8,000 acres
Brush

Habitat
„ Site Productivity
„ Productivity - the rate at which radiant energy
is used by producers to form organic
substances as food for consumers.
„ Factors influencing productivity include solar
radiation, temperature, soil fertility, and
precipitation
„ Within a given climatic region with level
topography, precipitation and soil fertility are
primary drivers
Habitat
„ Wildlife diversity and biomass generally
increases with increasing precipitation and soil
fertility
„ Precipitation may be a primary driving
mechanism across bioclimatic zones
„ Soil fertility may be a primary driving
mechanism within a bioclimatic zone

4
 Bioclimatic Zones Climatic
Regions
„ Aridity index = P/ETP where P =
precipitation and ETP = potential 0.2 to <0.45 >0.65

evapo-transpiration Aridity
index =
„ Hyperarid = <0.05 annual
„ Arid = 0.05 - <0.2 precipitation/
„ Semiarid = 0.2 - <0.45 evapotranspiration
0.05 to <0.2
„ Dry subhumid = 0.45 – <0.65
„ Subhumid and Humid = >0.65
0.45 to <0.65

Soil Fertility Soil Fertility

„ More plant-available moisture reduces the nutrient
„ Influences productivity, vegetation complexity content of plants but increases productivity, whereas
„ Highest large herbivore diversity in areas with more plant-available nutrients increase both of these
intermediate moisture and high nutrients factors.
„ Because larger herbivore species tolerate lower plant
(Olff et al. 2002. Global environmental controls of diversity in large nutrient content but require greater plant abundance,
herbivores. Nature 415:901-904 [http://www.resource-
ecology.org/resources/publications/2002_Olff,Prins_GlobalEnvironmental
the highest potential herbivore diversity should occur
ControlsOfDiversityInLargeHerbivores.pdf[) in locations with intermediate moisture and high
nutrients.
„ These areas are dry enough to yield high quality
plants and support smaller herbivores, but productive
enough to support larger herbivores.

Soil Fertility Habitat in An Evolutionary Context

„ Deer in Mississippi (Strickland, B.K., and S.
Demarais. 2000. Age and regional differences
in antlers and mass of white-tailed deer.
Journal of Wildlife Management 64:903-911)
„ Mature males reached maximum eviscerated
body mass (about 70 kg) at 4 years of age on
fertile soils, and at only 3 years of age on
infertile soils, averaging at little as 50 kg at
maturity
„ Organisms evolved in response to
environmental factors
„ Developed adaptations to abiotic and biotic
conditions enabling them to survive and reproduce
„ Distribution and abundance of an organism
depends on these adaptations
„ Certain organisms are preadapted
„ Happen to be adapted to a given set of
environmental conditions
„ Adapted to a particular area by chance

5
Habitat in an Evolutionary Context
„ Human impacts may make the current
environment different than the one the
organism evolved in
„ Human caused changes may cause irreversible
negative impacts
„ Examples: pronghorns, northern bobwhites
Habitat in an Evolutionary Context
„ Northern bobwhites declining; almost extinct
in SE United States
„ Human-imposed changes in habitat appear to
be the primary cause
Habitat in an Evolutionary Context
„ Introduction of organisms that did not evolve
in a particular area/continent may have serious
consequences
„ Preadapted species with no predators can
expand rapidly – European sparrows, starlings,
etc.
„ May outcompete native species; predators such
as brown tree snake may eliminate native
species
Habitat in an Evolutionary Context
„ Pronghorns once abundant in south Texas from
Chapman Ranch west to Starr and Jim Hogg
Counties
„ Remnant herd disappeared in 1980’s
„ Why? Probably changes in vegetation, at least
in part
„ Conversion of grassland to brushland
„ Pronghorns not adapted to shrubland ecosystem
„ A relict from when climate was cooler and
drier?
Coevolution
„ Joint evolution of two or more species that
have close ecological relationships but do not
exchange genetic material
„ Vegetation and herbivores coevolved
„ Vegetation developed adaptations to discourage
herbivory
„ Herbivores evolved adaptations to cope with
adaptations of the vegetation
Ecological Niche
„ Has been defined in a variety of ways
„ Odum – function of an organism in the
community
„ Grinnel – all the sites where a species can live
„ Hutchinson –imaginary space with many
dimensions, in which each dimension
represents the range of some resources
required by the organism
6
 Ecological Niche
„ Morrison et al. (2006) point out that habitat
can provide only part of the explanation of the
distribution of an animal
„ Must understand the animal’s niche to fully
understand mechanisms responsible for
animal’s fitness and survival
Ecological Niche
„ Differences we identify in habitat studies such
as a change in the use of an area are often
caused by a change in the use of specific
resources (Morrison et al. 2006)
„ Describing habitat in regard to plant
composition or structure often does not predict
animal performance because constraints on
exploitation of essential resources are not
identified (Morrison et al. 2006)
Terminology in Habitat
Management
„ The term habitat type is often misused in
wildlife literature
„ A habitat type includes all portions of the
landscape that support, or potentially support,
the same relatively stable plant association
under undisturbed conditions (Daubenmire, R.
1968. Plant communities: A textbook of plant
synecology. Harper and Row Publishers, New
York).
Ecological Niche
„ Habitat and niche are overlapping concepts
„ “A problem with focusing on habitat is that
features measured can stay the same while use
of important resources within the habitat can
change.” (Morrison et al. 2006)
„ Example: deer provided protein pellets foraged
primarily on browse while deer without pellets
consumed primarily mast
Habitat Research
„ Research on habitat use should include
measuring factors that may explain why an
animal chooses to occupy a given site, not just
documentation of whether or not it occupies
that site (Morrison et al. 2006)
Terminology in Habitat
Management
„ Habitat ≠ habitat type
„ Habitat is much more than just a particular
vegetation association
„ Habitat type should not be used when
discussing wildlife-habitat relationships (Hall
et al. 1997)
7
 Terminology in Habitat
Management
„ Habitat use - the way an organism uses a combination
of abiotic and biotic components in a habitat (Hall et
al. 1997)
„ Habitat selection – process involving innate and
learned behavioral decisions made by an animal about
what habitat to use at different scales (Hall et al.
1997)
„ Habitat preference – a consequence of the process of
habitat selection resulting in disproportionate use of
some resources relative to others (Hall et al. 1997)
Terminology in Habitat
Management
„ Habitat availability – accessibility and
procureability of abiotic and biotic
components of habitat by animals (Hall et al.
1997)
„ Suitable habitat – the term should be avoided
because if an organism occupies an area that
supports some of its needs, then it is habitat –
thus all habitat is suitable by definition (Hall et
al. 1997 – also see Wildlife Society Bulletin
25:760-763)

Terminology in Habitat
Management
„ Macrohabitat, microhabitat – relative terms
referring to the level at which a study is being
conducted; should be defined on a species-
specific and study-specific basis (Hall et al.
1997)