Wildlife Management: To Cull or Not to Cull?

I have always thought that “Wildlife Management” was a loose term.  Regardless of geographical location, wildlife lives in fragmented habitats, held inside imaginary borders meant to protect and conserve.  It is a daily struggle for humans and wild animals to co-exist.  As the human population continues to increase, wildlife is pushed to the edge of extinction.  Animals are culled to keep numbers in check according to management plans, as well as illegally poached for their parts or killed out of ignorance and fear.   So what does it mean to manage wildlife? In the early 1900s, the United States government initiated …

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Snakes, Spiders, and Bats…Oh My!

In preparation for my favorite holiday, I was recently perusing through the Halloween decorations at a local megastore.  For me, Halloween standards are carved pumpkins, bed sheet ghosts, and candy; lots of candy.  However, for others, the scariest of holidays is all about fear.  Some of the most iconic Halloween characters that makes ones blood run cold and stand frozen in fear, i.e., bats, spiders, and snakes, are the same creatures I find most fascinating.  Unfortunately, it is this very fear that has served as a death sentence for those same misunderstood species that actually do a great deal to …

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