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    The Lesson of The Kaibab

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    Jennifer Sturdivant
    The document discusses how the deer population on Arizona's Kaibab Plateau dramatically increased in the early 1900s after predators were eliminated and hunting was banned, causing overgrazing that led to thousands of deer starving by the late 1920s; management practices are now aimed at maintaining the population near the estimated carrying capacity of 30,000 deer to prevent future crashes.

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    The Lesson of The Kaibab

    Uploaded by

    Jennifer Sturdivant
    338 views4 pages
    The document discusses how the deer population on Arizona's Kaibab Plateau dramatically increased in the early 1900s after predators were eliminated and hunting was banned, causing overgrazing that led to thousands of deer starving by the late 1920s; management practices are now aimed at maintaining the population near the estimated carrying capacity of 30,000 deer to prevent future crashes.

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    The document discusses how the deer population on Arizona's Kaibab Plateau dramatically increased in the early 1900s after predators were eliminated and hunting was banned, causing overgrazing that led to thousands of deer starving by the late 1920s; management practices are now aimed at maintaining the population near the estimated carrying capacity of 30,000 deer to prevent future crashes.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as DOC, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as doc, pdf, or txt
    338 views4 pages

    The Lesson of The Kaibab

    Uploaded by

    Jennifer Sturdivant
    The document discusses how the deer population on Arizona's Kaibab Plateau dramatically increased in the early 1900s after predators were eliminated and hunting was banned, causing overgrazing that led to thousands of deer starving by the late 1920s; management practices are now aimed at maintaining the population near the estimated carrying capacity of 30,000 deer to prevent future crashes.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as DOC, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as doc, pdf, or txt
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    The document discusses how the Kaibab deer population on the plateau in Arizona dramatically increased after predators were removed, but then crashed as the population exceeded the carrying capacity of the land.

    The Forest Service banned all hunting and tried to exterminate the predators of the deer, including mountain lions, wolves, coyotes and bobcats between 1907 and 1939.

    Even though predators were eliminated, the deer population had grown so large by 1925 that overgrazing caused the food sources to be depleted, leading to a population decline.

    The Lesson of the Kaibab

    Introduction: The environment may be


    altered by forces within the biotic
    community, as well as by relationships
    between organisms and the physical
    environment. The carrying capacity of an
    ecosystem is the maximum number of
    organisms that an area can support on a
    sustained basis. The density of a population
    may produce such profound changes in the
    environment that the environment becomes unsuitable for the survival
    of that species. For instance, overgrazing of land may make the land
    unable to support the grazing of animals that lived there.

    Objectives:

     Graph data on the Kaibab deer population of Arizona from 1905


    to 1939
     Determine factors responsible for the changing populations
     Determine the carrying capacity of the Kaibab Plateau

    Background

    Before 1905, the deer on the Kaibab Plateau were estimated to


    number about 4000. The average carrying capacity of the range was
    then estimated to be about 30,000 deer. On November 28th, 1906,
    President Theodore Roosevelt created the Grand Canyon National
    Game Preserve to protect the "finest deer herd in America."

    Unfortunately, by this time the Kaibab forest area had already been
    overgrazed by sheep, cattle, and horses. Most of the tall grasses had
    been eliminated. The first step to protect the deer was to ban all
    hunting. In addition, in 1907, The Forest Service tried to exterminate
    the predators of the deer. Between 1907 and 1939, 816 mountain
    lions, 20 wolves, 7388 coyotes and more than 500 bobcats were killed.

    Signs that the deer population was out of control began to appear as
    early as 1920 - the range was beginning to deteriorate rapidly. The
    Forest Service reduced the number of livestock grazing permits. By
    1923, the deer were reported to be on the verge of starvation and the
    range conditions were described as "deplorable."
    The Kaibab Deer Investigating Committee recommended that all
    livestock not owned by local residents be removed immediately from
    the range and that the number of deer be cut in half as quickly as
    possible.
    DATA TABLE
    Hunting
    was Year Deer Population
    reopened,
    1905 4,000
    and during
    the fall of 1910 9,000
    1924, 675
    deer were 1915 25,000
    killed by 1920 65,000
    hunters.
    However, 1924 100,000
    these deer 1925 60,000
    represented
    only one- 1926 40,000
    tenth the 1927 37,000
    number of
    deer that 1928 35,000
    had been 1929 30,000
    born that
    spring. 1930 25,000
    Over the 1931 20,000
    next two
    winters, it 1935 18,000
    is estimated 1939 10,000
    that 60,000
    deer starved to death.

    Today, the Arizona Game Commission carefully manages the Kaibab


    area with regulations geared to specific local needs. Hunting permits
    are issued to keep the deer in balance with their range. Predators are
    protected to help keep herds in balance with food supplies. Tragic
    winter losses can be checked by keeping the number of deer near the
    carrying capacity of the range.
    1. Graph the deer population data. Place time on the X axis
    and "number of deer" on the Y axis.

    Analysis

    1. During 1906 and 1907, what two methods did the Forest Service use to
    protect the Kaibab deer?
    2. Were these methods successful? Use the data from your graph to
    support your answer.

    3. Why do you suppose the population of deer declined in 1925, although


    the eliminationof predators occurred?

    4. Why do you think the deer population size in 1900 was 4,000 when it is
    estimated that the plateau has a carrying capacity of 30,000?

    5. Based on these lessons, suggest what YOU would have done in the
    following years to manage deer herds.

    1915:

    1926:

    6. It is a criticism of many population ecologists that the pattern of


    population increase and subsequent crash of the deer population would
    have occurred even if the bounty had not been placed on the predators.
    Do you agree or disagree with this statement. Explain your reasoning.

    7. What future management plans would you suggest for the Kaibab deer
    herd?

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