Wildlife Research Progress, 1961 



The Bureau of Sport Fisheries and Wild- 

 life has broad authority for research on an 

 array of wildlife species, resident and 

 migratory, game and nonganne, harnnful 

 and beneficial. The Branch of Wildlife 

 Research is the wildlife fact-finding arm 

 of the Bureau. It performs research in 

 the areas of waterfowl management, other 

 migratory bird studies, upland wildlife, 

 pesticide-wildlife relations, diseases and 

 parasites, control methods, and classifica- 

 tion, distribution, and life history studies. 



The Cooperative Wildlife Research Unit 

 Program is one of many cooperative prp- 

 gran-is participated in by the Branch. These 

 Units are supported and administered under 

 terms of memorandums of understanding 

 signed by representatives of the Bureau, 

 the Wildlife Management Institute, and the 

 land grant colleges and the fish and game 

 departments of 16 States. The Unit Pro- 

 gram, in addition to conducting research, 

 facilitates wildlife training and promotes 

 conservation education through demonstra- 

 tions, publications, lectures, and consulta- 

 tion. The assistance and support of the 

 Wildlife Management Institute and of the 

 cooperating States in the Unit activities 

 mentioned in this report are gratefully 

 acknowledged. Many of the findings recorded 

 here are preliminary, and readers wishing 

 more detailed information are requested to 

 Avrite to the Bureau or to the Units, listed 

 in Appendix A. 



The Branch also cooperates with other 

 land-managing agencies of the Interior De- 

 partment, and with the U.S. Forest Service, 

 the Soil Conservation Service, the Depart- 

 ment of Health, Education, and Welfare, 

 and the Department of Defense in solving 

 wildlife management problems. In coopera- 

 tion with the Wildlife Management Institute, 

 the Federal Aid in Wildlife Restoration 

 Program, and the International Association 

 of Game, Fish, and Conservation Commis- 

 sioners, research is conducted in foreign 



countries on potentially adaptable game 

 species, and numbers of them are obtained 

 for trial release in selected game-deficient 

 areas of the United States. 



Other projects made possible through the 

 cooperation of conservation agencies, 

 scientific institutions, or individuals in- 

 clude the international bird-banding record 

 center at the Patuxent Wildlife Research 

 Center, Laurel, Maryland. Here banding 

 data on more than 11 million birds and 

 recovery records on more than 1 nnillion 

 migratory birds are kept in addition to a 

 file of more than 3 million cards on the 

 distribution and migration of North Ameri- 

 can birds. The world's largest collections 

 of North American birds and mammals are 

 maintained at the U.S. National Museum in 

 cooperation with employees of the Smith- 

 sonian Institution. These records, together 

 with the professional taxonomic services 

 rendered by Branch employees, are avail- 

 able to investigators both within and without 

 the Bureau. The assistance of the thousands 

 of banders, observers, and collectors who 

 have cooperated in collecting the specimens 

 or in providing the data makes this com- 

 prehensive service possible. 



Details on Branch organization, adminis- 

 trative and supervisory channels, locations 

 of research installations, and financing are 

 given in the appendixes. Briefly, the Branch 

 is organized on a staff-and-line basis with 

 the Directors of the four research centers, 

 the Leaders of the l6 Cooperative Wildlife 

 Research Units, and the foreign game in- 

 troduction project leader reporting directly 

 to the Branch's Washington Office, which 

 is responsible for program planning, co- 

 ordination, and administration. Fiscal, per- 

 sonnel, and property management are 

 handled through the Bureau's six Regional 

 Offices. In the fiscal year 1962 the Branch 

 had more than 150 professional and over 

 100 nonprofessional employees and a budget 

 of more than $2^ million. 



