A Big Resource with Big Gaps

The Wildlife Techniques Manual. Volume 1 (Research) and Volume 2 (Management). 7th edition. Silvy, N. J., editor. 2012. Published in affiliation with The Wildlife Society by Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore, MD. $150.00 (two-volume hardcover set). 686 pp. ISBN 978-1-4214-0159-1. As a wildlife-obsessed undergraduate student in the 1990s, an earlier version of the Wildlife Techniques Manual was considered required reading in my research group, and I continue to keep a copy close at hand. The first edition was released in 1960 and has been updated roughly every decade since. Edited for the first time by Nova J. Silvy, the 7th edition continues the tradition of keeping up with many new developments and providing important details on old standards. This latest edition covers a broad range of topics including experimental design, data management, wildlife handling, and immobilization, and a wide range of approaches to data collection, from the relatively new uses of trail cameras and GPS satellite collars to spatial analyses and habitat evaluation. The exciting, emerging field of conservation genetics and molecular ecology has its own chapter, a development that illustrates the field is important and continues to devise entirely new methods and approaches. Initiating and then regularly updating such a body of work requires a tremendous amount of dedication and effort, and I applaud the editor and many contributors for their amazing work. This is the first time the book has been published in two volumes, and the result is a considerable increase in content. Certainly the allocation of space in the book to particular topics is a reflection of overall priorities. I was particularly pleased to see individual chapters devoted to “Human Dimensions of Wildlife Management” and “Communication and Outreach” in the volume on management, both are areas of increasing importance and focus in the field. However, I was disappointed that these topics were absent from the research volume, which consequently lacks information on, for example, designing and analyzing mail and internet surveys (e.g., Berg et al. 1983), conducting interviews, or using local and traditional knowledge (e.g., Anadon et al. 2009) or citizen science (e.g., Elbroch et al. 2011) in research. These approaches can be used to inform the ecology of wildlife, evaluate specific management actions, and address the softer questions related to attitudes and perceptions. That these established areas of wildlife research were ignored is a significant gap in this book and unfortunately serves to maintain the divide that exists between the biological and social-science approaches to wildlife research. Although it is not necessary to duplicate the latest text, Human Dimensions of Wildlife (Decker et al. 2012), a more even treatment of such research methods and focus on areas of application not covered in that work are needed. Given that global climate change has emerged as one of the biggest issues in wildlife research and management (e.g., Mawdsley et al. 2009), I would also have thought that topic alone would be worthy of its own chapter. Indeed, I was more than a little shocked to see that neither climate nor climate change were in the index of the research manual. Climate change does receive some sporadic and limited treatment in the management volume, but it seemed tagged on. There are certainly many new and exciting methods and approaches to addressing the connections between wildlife and climate change that could easily fill a chapter. The lack of emphasis on climate change overall in these two volumes is a critical gap in this resource and—probably inadvertently—sends a powerful message that climate change is not a particularly serious issue. In contrast, “Harvest Management” and “Identification and Management of Wildlife Damage” are each covered in separate chapters in the management volume, with considerable detail and excellent overviews of methods and issues. Perhaps of greatest concern, neither of the two volumes contains any substantial coverage of ethical considerations related to wildlife research and management, which are often invasive and are increasingly controversial. The chapter on research and experimental design has no discussion of metaethics, normative ethics, or applied ethics. For example, Hall's (1973) Of the Principles of Investigation in Physiology include the following guidelines: no experiment should take place if the necessary information could be gained by observation; only experiments that would result in the fulfillment of clearly defined and attainable aims should proceed; unnecessary repetition of an experiment must be avoided—particularly if reputable physiologists were responsible for the original experiment; all experiments must be conducted with a minimum of suffering; all physiological experiments should be witnessed by peers, further reducing the need for repetition. These concepts are all but ignored in The Wildlife Techniques Manual but should be a fundamental component of any research design. The chapter on chemical immobilization has a section on legal considerations, but there is no mention of ethical issues related to this work. The chapter on capturing and handling of animals briefly mentions the technical requirement to address pain and distress, to address institutional animal care and use committees, and includes some discussion of animal welfare related to traps. Surely topics of such overall importance, such as broad questions of the ethics of research on animals, should have their own chapter or at least some substantial discussion. An important criticism of the North American model of wildlife conservation is a lack of emphasis and breadth in considering the ethical aspects of wildlife research and management (Nelson et al. 2011), and these two volumes further validate this criticism. As with any reference book of this nature, it necessarily covers many topics with some brevity. Nevertheless, The Wildlife Techniques Manual is hard to beat as a starting point for inquiry into many of the more conventional aspects of wildlife research and management. It includes 234 pages of citations that lead the reader directly to more detailed peer-reviewed studies on specific techniques. Inevitably, as soon as a tome like this is released it almost immediately requires updating because new information continues to emerge. Thus, it is not the last place to look for detailed information on wildlife research and management, but it is very often the first. I hope planning will begin soon on an 8th edition and that it will address the key gaps that exist. I suggest that the next iteration include a chapter on ethics and animal welfare in both research and management sections, inclusion of social-science research methods and their connection to biological research, and an emphasis on specific methods and approaches to climate change and other key current issues. Inclusion of such material will help ensure the next generation of managers and researchers in the wildlife field keep a place on their desk for their trusted Wildlife Techniques Manual.

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