FOREWORD 



Today 's paramount wildlife problem stems from our material 

 success as a Nation. Each day there are 8,000 more Americans ; 

 industrial development is on a fantastic scale; and suburbia is 

 surrounding every city and town. Our national growth is con- 

 suming the very environment that is essential to wildlife — land, 

 water, and space. 



Continued national growth wall require still more land and 

 water. A population nearing 200 million individuals requires 

 more land and water than one of only half or three-fourths that 

 number, as we had in 1920 and 1950. This all adds up to the 

 inescapable fact that the problem of preserving adequate living 

 space for wildlife will become increasingly difficult to solve. 



Research, the accumulation of more knowledge, and the trans- 

 lation of that knowledge into more effective management, offers 

 hope. When we know more — much more in many instances — 

 about the environmental requirements of wild birds and mam- 

 mals, about how best to control noxious species, and about the 

 socioeconomic relations of wuldlife as a renewable resource, we will 

 be in a better position to manage for maximum wildlife production 

 on specific areas, or optimum wildlife populations in a watershed 

 or region, or perhaps — as has been done with field crops — more 

 wildlife on less land. And certainly increased knowledge will 

 enable responsible Government agencies to meet more effectively 

 other problems involving wildlife resources — pesticides, pollution, 

 protection, harvest, and disease. 



Wildlife ups and downs and major changes in kinds and 

 quality are due to two main things: Changes in environment, and 

 application of knowledge in management. Migratory birds, big 

 game, upland game, fur animals, song birds, and fish can be 

 retained as great natural assets if we can learn enough, and in 

 time, about their needs. 



The function of the Division of Wildlife Research of the 

 Bureau of Sport Fisheries and Wildlife is to obtain information 

 on wildlife resources, and the purpose of this report is to relay 

 for administrative and management use some of the information 

 obtained in 1963. 



Daxiel H. Jaxzex, 



Director. 



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