THE BRANCH OF WILDLIFE RESEARCH 



The Branch of Wildlife Research is the wild- 

 life fact-finding arm of the Bureau of Sport Fish- 

 eries and Wildlife, which has broad authority for 

 conducting research on all wildlife species — game 

 and nongame, resident and migratory, harmful 

 and beneficial. Results of these investigations 

 are used by the Bureau and cooperating Federal 

 and State agencies in managing wildlife resources 

 for the production of more recreational enjoy- 

 ment for the people, and more etfective control 

 of wildlife injurious to agricultural, industrial, 

 and urban interests. 



The general program. — The current programs 

 of the Branch include research on waterfowl man- 

 agement, other migratory birds, upland wildlife, 

 pesticide-wildlife relations, diseases and parasites, 

 control methods, and classification, distribution, 

 and life-history studies of wild birds and animals. 



In meeting its wildlife research responsibilities, 

 the Branch cooperates with various land-manag- 

 ing agencies of the Department of the Interior, 

 the Department of Agriculture, the Department 

 of Health, Education, and Welfare, and the De- 

 partment of Defense. In its game-bird introduc- 

 tion program, the Branch cooperates with the 

 Wildlife Management Institute, the International 

 Association of Game, Fish, and Conservation Com- 

 missioners, the several State conservation depart- 

 ments, and, of course, with the foreign countries 

 concerned; and much of this research is in the 

 native ranges of game birds considered potentially 

 adaptable for release in selected game-deficient 

 areas in the United States. 



The Branch is concerned with many other in- 

 stances of cooperative research, made possible by 

 the interest of various conservation agencies, 

 scientific institutions, and individuals. These 

 programs include the bird-banding record center 

 at the Migratory Bird Populations Station, 

 Laurel, Md., where banding data on more than 11 

 million birds of all kinds, and re<>ovei-y records 

 on more than 1 million migratory birds, are kept, 

 and where more than 3 million cards on the disti-i- 

 l)ution and migration of North America birds are 

 filed. The world's largest collections of North 



Aniei'ican Ijirds and mammals are maintained at 

 the U.S. National Museum, in cooperation with 

 the Smithsonian Institution. These records, to- 

 gether with the professional taxonomic services 

 provided by Branch employees, are available to 

 investigators both in and out of the Bureau. The 

 assistance of thousands of banders, observers, and 

 collectors who have cooperated in obtaining these 

 specimens or in providing data on them makes 

 this comprehensive service possible. 



One of the oldest and best known of the Branch's 

 cooperative programs is that of the Wildlife Re- 

 search Units. The Units are supported and ad- 

 ministered under terms of a memorandum of un- 

 derstanding signed by officials of the Bureau, the 

 Wildlife Management Institute, and the land 

 grant colleges and the game and fish departments 

 of the 18 participating States. In addition to the 

 research endeavor, the Units facilitate the training 

 of qualified graduate students in the wildlife field 

 and promote conservation education through pub- 

 lication, demonstration, lecture, and consultation. 

 Readers who may wish more detailed information 

 on the program should feel free to write the 

 Bureau or any of the I'nits, listed in appendix D. 



Organization. — The Branch of Wildlife Re- 

 search, in the Division of Wildlife of the Bureau 

 of Sport Fisheries and Wildlife, is organized on a 

 line-and-stafl" basis, with directors of the four re- 

 search centers, leaders of the 18 Cooperative 

 Wildlife Research Units, and the foreign game 

 introduction project leader reporting directly to 

 the Branch's central office in Washington. Pro- 

 gram planning, coordination, and administration 

 for all Branch research is a function of the Wash- 

 ington office ; while fiscal, personnel, and property 

 management are handled through the Bureau's 

 six regional offices. In the fiscal year 1963 the 

 Branch had 171 professional and 145 nonprofes- 

 sional employees and a budget of about $3,700,000. 

 Details of organization, administrative and super- 

 visory channels, location of research installations, 

 and financing are given in the several appendixes 

 to this report. 



