THIRTY-SEVEXTII HIKNXIAI, KEPORT 



31 



Several phases of the problem will be investigated. Extensive sur- 

 veys will be carried out to determine what parasites occur, how wide- 

 spread are certain diseases and what other animals may be afifected or may 

 serve as carriers. From such information, plus laboratory experiments 

 on life histories and pathology, it is hoped that we shall be able to evalu- 

 ate the importance of diseases and the nature of damage to wild animal 

 liopnlations. Once such information luis been obtained control measures 

 will be attemi^ted. One of the important still unanswered questions in 

 wildlife is the Huctuation of populations known as cycles. The first 

 know^n project' on this subject was the British Grouse investigation on 

 which a report was published in 1911. Similar surveys have been carried 

 out in other parts of the world as well as in this Country since that time. 

 At the Matamek Conference on ]5iological Cycles (1932) a great deal 

 of importance was placed on the disease factor. Although much inves- 

 tigation has been made, pai'ticularly on rabbits and game birds, the 

 reasons for the periodicity, Avith cyclic diseases as a possible factor, are 

 still obscure and much more extensive work is indicated. Often the 



Fig. 7 



