Wildlife Report

Wildlife Report

(Editor’s note: This is one in a series of releases on wildlife and game management by George Cornwell of the depart ment of forestry and wildlife at Virginia Polytechnic Institute.)

Each year the Fish and Wildlife Service releases a biggame inventory which compares big-game wildlife populations and kills with those of previous years. Such information is essential if regulations intended to control the hunter and the number of animals shot by the hunter are to do the job required of them.

Methods used to determine the number of animals killed involve requiring hunters to pass through checking stations such as is done in Virginia, interviews of hunters, general field observations by biologists and law enforcement personnel, analysis of license stubs and hunting card returns information provided by landowners who own the land hunted upon, and questionnaires sent to hunters. Each year, impro'vement in techniques and addition of personnel lead to more reliable analyses and, more accurate information. The total kill of all species in 1962 was approximately 1.000 above that of 1961. The principle game species, the take of bears, long-horn antelopes, deer, big horn sheep, and mountain goats, was higher in 1962; the take of moose and elk was lower; the take of wild turkeys dropped by 13 percent.

Approximately two million deer were shot, half of them the white-tailed deer so common in Virginia, the other half mule deer and black-tailed deer, both western species. Ten thousand moose were shot 9.000 of them in Alaska; 65,000 elk; 26,000 black bears, 500 grizzly bears and 80,000antelopes. Among the less common big game animals shot on the United States mainland were 40 buffaloes, 350 big-horn sheep, and 1,500 mountain goats. There is in the southwest a small, native wild pig known as the peccary or javelina. Five thousand six hun