Debark University

College of Agriculture and Environmental Science

Department of Natural Resource Management
Program Natural Resource Management (NaRM)
Degree program B.Sc. in NaRM
Course Title Wildlife Ecology and Management
Course code NaRM311
Course delivery system Parallel
Year and semester Year III: semester I
Prerequisite None
Status of the Course Basic course
ECTS 3 (2 credit hours)
Enrolment Regular
Instructors name Belgie Abebaw (MSc) E – mail contact: [email protected]
Physical contact Block –Ground –Room 2
Contact hours Lecture Practices Home study Total
32 32 17 81

Course Description
The course explores conceptually the ecological knowledge needed for wildlife management,
including the Definition and concepts of wildlife ecology, Wildlife Conservation and
Management, Wildlife Habitat, Cover and Territory, Wildlife Movement, wildlife adaptation,
Survival strategies of animals, Selection theories/life strategies, Wildlife Foods, Nutrition and
Water Requirements, Wildlife Reproduction and Mortality, Wildlife Census Techniques,
Observation in animals, Measurements of density, Information from age and sex categories,
Information from dead animals, Inventory and monitoring, Intensive and Extensive Wildlife
Management, Wildlife Management Attributes, Translocation, introduction and re-introduction
of animals, Management of captive animals, Care in transportation of captured wild animals,
Wild animal health and condition assessment, Wild animal disease, Guidelines to formulate
wildlife management plan, Implementing management plan and evaluating the effectiveness of
wildlife management, Human-Wildlife Conflict and Its Control Methods, Impacts of Human-
Wildlife Conflict, Causes of Human-wildlife Conflict, Human-wildlife conflict management .
Course Objective
On successful completion of the course the students should be able to do the following:
Develop a concept of how they manage wildlife populations in different situations around the
world.
 Discuss the principles of wildlife ecology.
 Explain wildlife habitats and their importance to managing wildlife.
 Explain how populations of any one species change and adapt to variations in their
environment.
 Describe carrying capacity and its importance in managing wildlife populations.
 Explain a range of different methods used to determine the number of individuals in a
wildlife population.
 Discuss a range of different wildlife management techniques.
 Explain the potentials and limitations of legal and administrative initiatives, in the
pursuance of more effective wildlife management.
 Understanding of ecological and environmental principles required for management of
wildlife ecology for multiple uses, including wildlife habitat, water management,
ecosystem services, recreation, and livestock production;
Describe how wildlife ecology management fits into the context of society and how societal
factors (e.g., economics, policy, laws, regulations, attitude, behaviors, and norms) influence
wildlife ecology;

Lecture
Contents hours
Chapter 1. INTRODUCTION 2
1.1. Ecological structure
1.2. Wildlife species diversity and distributions
1.3. Factors affecting wildlife species diversity and
distributions
1.4. Ecology of Ethiopian Wildlife
Chapter 2. BEHAVIORAL ECOLOGY OF WILDLIFE 3
2.1. Species Interactions Within Ecology
2.1.1. Inter-specific interaction
2.1.2.Intra-specific interaction
 2.2. The Competitive Exclusion Principle
2.3. Symbiotic Relationships Of Wildlife
2.4. The Theory Of Natural Selection
2.5.Trophic Relationship Of Wildlife Community In
Ecosystem
2.5.1. Energy flow
2.5.2. Nutrient cycle
2.6. Migration Behavior
2.7 .Communication and Signaling Behavior
Chapter 3. WILDLIFE HABITATS AND CARRYING CAPACITY 4
3.1. World Biomes
3.1.1. Forest
3.1.2. Tropical Savannah
3.1.3. Grassland
3.1.4. Wetlands (inland)
3.1.5. Desert
3.1.6. Man-Made Biomes (Urban)
3.1.6.1. urban ecology
3.1.6.2. urban wildlife
3.1.6.3. urban wildlife diversity and distribution
3.6.1.4.factors affecting urban wildlife diversity and distribution
3.2. Animal Needs
3.3. Changes to Habitats
3.4. Carrying capacity
Chapter 4. POPULATION DYNAMICS OF WILDLIFE 5
4.1. Age Structure
4.2. Life span
4.3. Fecundity Rate Mortality Rate
4.4. Sex ratio
4.5. Geometric and Exponential Population Growth
Chapter 5. WILDLIFE MANAGEMENT 4
5. 1. Definition and concepts Management
5.2. Purpose of Wildlife Management
5.3. Approaches to Wildlife Management
5.3.1. Preservation
5.3.2. Conservation
5.3.3. Habitat modification
5.3.4. Fire
5.3.5. Vegetation management
5.3.4. Predator control
 5.3.5. Population monitoring
5.3.6. Captive breeding and release
5.3.7. Culling and cropping
5.3.8. Control of pest or undesirable wildlife species
5.3.9. Manipulating mortality, fertility, and genetic engineering
Chapter 6. WILDLIFE INVENTORY AND CENSUS
6.1. Introduction and inventory types
6.2. Total Counts 5
6.3. Sampling
6.3.1. Types of sampling
6.3.2. Shape and size of sample units
6.3.3. Sampling design (Simple Random, Stratified, Systemic sampling)
6.4. Trapping
6.5. Transects
6.6. Indirect Methods
6.7. Mark-Recapture method
Chapter 7. WILDLIFE MANAGEMENT LAW AND ADMINISTRATION 5
7.1. Policy and Wildlife Law
7.2. Treaties
7.3. International Customary Laws
7.4. Domestic/National Law
7.5. Sources of Legislation
7.6. Environmental Ethics
Chapter 8. HUMAN-WILDLIFE CONFLICTS AND ITS MANAGEMENT 4
8.1. Human and Wildlife
8.2. Human-Wildlife conflict
8.2.1. History of human-wildlife conflict
8.2.2. Forms of human-wildlife conflict
8.2.3. Causes of human-wildlife conflict
8.2.4. Impacts of human-wildlife conflict
8.3. Human-wildlife conflict management
8.6.1. Prevention strategies
8.6.2. Mitigation methods
Mode of Delivery
 Lectures
 Group discussion in the classroom
 Field visit
 Tutorials
 Debates,
Assessment methods
Assessment methods Allotted marks in %
Test1 & Test 2 20
Individual &Group assignment 20
Quiz 1&2 10
Final exam 50
Total 100
Grading: As per the University regulation

Policy
 All students are expected to stand by the code of conduct of students of the University
throughout this course.
 Switch off Mobile Phones during any activity; chewing gum is forbidden; being late
more than one minute is unacceptable; during lecture hours, noise is forbidden; in case of
inconvenience, inform ahead of time.
Attendance: a student is required to attend all lectures, laboratory and practical sessions as well
as field work. For the situations where you fail to attend sessions, because of reasons beyond
your control, see the senate legislation of the University.
REFERENCES
Caughley G. and A. R. Sinclair. (1994). Wildlife Ecology and Management. Blackwell Press.
Eldredge, N. (1998). Life in the Balance: Humanity and the Biodiversity Crisis. Princeton University Press,
New Jersey.
Fryxell, J.M., A.R.E. Sinclair, and G. Caughley.( 2014). Wildlife Ecology, Conservation, and Management,
3rd edition. Wiley Blackwell Publishing (paperback)
Gemeda, Do and Meles, Sk.(2018) .Impacts of Human-Wildlife Conflict in Developing Countries Vol. 22
(8) 1233–1238 August 2018.
Nasi, R., Brown, D., Wilkie, D., Bennett, E., Tutin, C., van Tol, G., and Christophersen, T. (2008).
Conservation and use of wildlife-based resources: the bushmeat crisis. Secretariat of the
Convention on Biological Diversity, Montreal, and Center for International Forestry Research
(CIFOR), Bogor. Technical Series no. 33, 50 pages.
Pirot, J.-Y., Meynell P.J. and Elder D. (2000). Ecosystem Management: Lessons from Around the World. A
Guide for Development and Conservation Practitioners. IUCN, Gland, Switzerland and
Cambridge, UK. x + 132 pp.