THE DIVISION OF WILDLIFE RESEARCH 



The calendar year 1963 was one of expansion 

 and personnel change in the Division of Wildlife 

 Research. 1 Personnel changes, other than new 

 starting, were mainly in key positions. 



There was no change in purpose and function 

 of the Division. Through the year, as previously. 

 it served as the wildlife factfinding arm of the 

 Bureau, responsible for research on all wildlife — 

 game and nongame, resident and migratory, harm- 

 ful and beneficial. Results of the Division's in- 

 vestigations are used by the Bureau and by 

 cooperating Federal and State agencies in wild- 

 life management aimed at the production of more 

 recreational enjoyment for the people, and more 

 effective control of forms injurious to agricultural, 

 industrial, and urban interests. 



Th, research />r<></r<tni. — Division research cur- 

 rently involves waterfowl and other migratory 

 birds, upland wildlife with particular emphasis 

 on problems occurring on public lands, pesticide- 

 wildlife relations, diseases and parasites, control 

 methods, and classification, distribution, and life 

 history studies of wild birds and animals. Marine 

 mammal research is presently concentrated on the 

 sea otter. 



Continuing an expansion that began in 1958 were 

 research programs in animal-control methods and 

 pesticide-wildlife relations. Disease and parasite 

 research in the Held of resident wildlife was ex- 

 panded during the year through a contract with 

 the University of Georgia. Smaller but still sig- 

 nificant growth characterized research on water- 

 fowl and on other migratory birds. 



1 In action taken late in 1963. the Branch of Wildlife Research. 

 as well as other Branches constituting the Bureau of Sport Fish- 

 eries and Wildlife, were given Division status, effective early in 

 1964 



In meeting its wildlife research responsibilities, 

 the Division cooperates with agencies of the De- 

 partment of the Interior, the Department of Agri- 

 culture, the Department of Health, Education, and 

 Welfare, and the Department of Defense. In its 

 game-bird introduction program, it cooperates 

 with the Wildlife Management Institute, the In- 

 ternational Association of Game, Fish, and Con- 

 servation Commissioners, more than 40 State con- 

 servation departments, and, of course, with the 

 foreign countries concerned; and much of this re- 

 search is in the native ranges of game birds con- 

 sidered potentially adaptable for release in selected 

 game-deficient areas in the United States. 



One of the oldest and best known of the Divi- 

 sion's cooperative programs is that of the Coopera- 

 tive AVildlife Research Units. These cooperatives 

 are supported and administered under terms of a 

 memorandum of understanding signed by officials 

 of the Bureau, the Wildlife Management Institute, 

 and the land grant colleges and game and fish de- 

 partments of the 18 participating States. In 

 addition to the research endeavor, the Units facil- 

 itate training of qualified graduate students in the 

 wildlife field and promote conservation education 

 through publication, demonstration, lecture, and 

 consultation. 



The Division i- concerned with numerous other 

 instances of cooperative research, made possible 

 by the interest of various conservation agencies, 

 scientific institutions, and individuals. These pro- 

 grams include the bird-banding record center at 

 the Migratory Bird Populations Station at Laurel, 



Md., where banding data on nearly L2,l ,000 



birds of all kinds and recovery records on more 

 than 1,000,000 migratory birds are filed, and where 



734-563 O — 64- 2 



