Wildlife Parasitism, Science, and Management Policy

Peterson, Markus

Wildlife managers lack a scientifically sound basis from which to formulate management policy regarding many host-parasite interactions. One contributing factor to this problem is the paucity of hypothetico-deductive (H-D) research concerning the ecological consequences of host-parasite interactions. A comparison of justifications used for wildlife brucellosis management policy in Wood Buffalo National Park (NP) (Canada) and the Greater Yellowstone Area (U.S.) demonstrates how perspective (with or without science) can drive policy formation. If wildlife scientists consistently used the H-D method to gather reliable knowledge pertinent to an ecological perspective of wildlife brucellosis (or other host-parasite interactions), their contribution toward the formation of disease management policy would be more significant. In situations where disease management must commence prior to the completion of manipulative experiments (which admittedly can be difficult to apply with free-roaming wildlife), adaptive resource management, as suggested by Walters (1986), could profitably be used to test hypotheses.

Wildlife Parasitism, Science, and Management Policy

Series