Journal of the Southeastern Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies

While teaching a course entitled Vertebrate Pest Control, I scanned local newspapers for articles relevant to the course. A wide range of news items dealing with animals in nuisance and pest situations was found as were articles, photographs, and cartoons which were useful in demonstrating principles of vertebrate pest control and in providing discussions of means to deal with animals in pest situations.

In 1977, a 5 page questionnaire was developed and sent to hatchery managers in I I southeastern states to characterize the status of current hatchery education programs. The survey indicated that approximately 1.4 million people visited the 55 hatcheries providing a unique opportunity to communicate directly with a large segment of the general public. A majority of the managers (98%) recognized the importance of public education and most (7 I%) felt that their current programs were in need of improvement. The programs relied heavily on self-guided tours, guided tours, an array of audiovisual aids, and publications. Although most managers (72%) felt they could justify increased budgetary allotments for educational program improvement, they did not expect increased funding.

Marketing of resource management programs to the general public often poses problems to information officers. Too often the public is uncaring and apathetic about resource programs unless the programs involve controversial problems. To better educate the public about resource management and to spur int,erest and participation in such programs, the information staff at Land Between The Lakes has developed a series of guidelines by which activities hav,e been marketed. Staff has been successful in marketing resource programs and in generating interest to attract satisfactory attendance.

Collective bargaining rights were granted by law to public employees of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania by the General Assembly, Act No. 195, effective October 17, 1970. The Act established rights to public employees to organize and bargain collectively through selected representatives; defining public employees to include employees of non'profit organizations and institutions; providing compulsory mediation and factfinding, for collective bargaining impasses; defining the scope of collective bargaining; establishing unfair employee and employer practices; prohibiting strikes for certain public employees, permitting strikes under limited conditions; providing penalties for violations; and establishing procedures for implementing.

America's heritage is borne not only on the genius of its people, but on its creatures of the forest and streams. All too often these wildlife species will disappear unnoticed and we are then the losers. "A New Horizon" reminds us that now, and not tomorrow, is the time to take notice of the needs of wildlife.

The present federal wildlife import/export control program consists of designated ports of entry for imports, import declarations, package marking requirements, inspection and clearance of imported animals, parts, products, documentation, and records. Future control over imports and exports will be strengthened if new regulations designating ports for export, a licensing provision for wildlife importers and exporters, and a new export declaration requirement is instituted. Adequate enforcement of wildlife importing and exporting is dependent on state, federal, and international cooperation.

A 2-phase procedure for scaling the importance of enforcement objectives and developing seriousness scores for violations of wildlife and natural resource laws is presented. During the first phase, 6 first-order wildlife law enforcement objectives were developed by the authors anil submitted to enforcement personnel of the Virginia Commission of Game and Inland Fisheries for pair,ed comparisons scaling. An interval scale of importance was established for the 6 objectives. Responses from a sample of 10 individuals indicated that enforcement personnel were consistent when making paired comparison judgments. A significant (P

Virginia adopted regulations governing falconry October 1, 1976. The procedure for obtaining a joint Federal/State falconry permit for Virginia is outlined. To date 23 falconers hold permits in the State.

As wildlife law enforcement practitioners, situations are frequently encountered in which identification of blood and tissue is required or otherwise desirable. A simplified technique has been developed for determining the species composing a blood or tissue sample through the use of immunological techniques. Using proper procedures and a minimum of equipment, positive identification of blood and tissue can be obtained within at 24 hour period. Testing procedures are straightforward and uncompleted. However, a thorough understanding of the basic principles of blood and tissue examination is necessary especially for courtroom application.

The Pennsylvania Game Commission responded to a need by instigating a program of hunter participation in the enforcement of game laws. The program named S P 0 R T (stands for "Sportsmen Policing Our Ranks Together"), has encouraged clubs and individuals to report game law infractions. Some game protectors report that as much as 30% of their reported violations have resulted from their promotion of SPORT.

Using hunting accident report forms filled out by Virginia game wardens from July 1961 to June 1977, we analyzed the conditions related to 972 hunting casualties. Virginia statistics are compared with data for the United States for 1970. All data were reported on National Rifle Association (NRA) Uniform Hunter Casualty Report forms. Approximately half Of the accidents in Virginia were caused by judgment errors. About 20% involved lack of skill. Fifteen percent occurred when safety rules and state laws were violated. Approximately' 3% were due to defective firearms. National accident statistics were roughly equivalent to Virginia statistics. In Virginia, 47% of the accidents occurred when hunters sought big game, primarily whitetail deer. However, Virginia hunters spent 28% of their time big game hunting. The preponderance of accidents involved people under 25, years of age and having less than 5 years experience.

Virginia's Hunter Safety program began as a voluntary effort of game wardens in the field and has always depended heavily on law enforcement personnel. Wardens were among the first instructors trained and have been involved in training the majority of the 192,000 safe hunters graduated to date. The recent creation of an Assistant Supervisor for Education in each of the 6 districts has given the hunter safety program a big boost. These people facilitate the flow of equipment and materials in the district. The training is usually offered as a part of the Physical Education Program. Field experience indicates the program is having a positive effect. Graduates of the course are usually courteous and law abiding, a far cry from the trouble makers often encountered. It provides a golden opportunity for law enforcement officers to relate to young and old alike. Getting into the school system with the safety message also opens doors for other school programs in the conservation field.

The well-being of any species of wildlife should be detenuined by scientific methods of observation. The ESSA -is charged with the I1esponsibility of insuring that the government's decisions concerning import and export of certain species of animals and plants are scientifically sound.

Pine planting sites prepared by burning yielded 120 kg/ha of browse fruits thethird growing season after site treatment. Control plots yielded 74, KG-bladed plots 57,and chopped plots 41 kg/ha, Blackberries, American beautyberry, sumac, Sebastian bush,muscadine grape, blueberries, and southern wax-myrtle were the principal species. Mostfruit was available in summer and fall, but some persisted through winter and spring.Fruit production was related to the number and average height of the fruiting browse species.

The Delmarva Wildlife Work Group's procedure for wildlife habitat evaluation refined a procedure for comprehensible and sound development of data collection and analysis. This effort created an accepted format for communications between individual biologists and other professions. Work group consensus of particular wildlife habitat values including a quantity of land use, interspersion and management conditions were much more applicable than individual interpretations. This procedure permits predictionof future wildlife habitat values on lands with various planned activities versus unplanned activities. Application of the procedure involved 150 volunteer participants collecting dataon 19,425 km2 at 60,000 sites.The Delmarva Peninsula is experiencing a growing conflict between agricultural, fish and wildlife, and environmental interests. An important goal of the Delmarva River Basins Survey has been to help resolve these conflicts and enhance the complementary situations.

The average distance moved between captures (d) in a 10 x 10 live trap grid with 15.2-m spacing was determined for eight species of rodents in South Texas during January-July 1975 and 1976. Large samples yielded fairly precise estimates of d for cotton rats (Sigmodon hisPidus) (25.8 ± 0.58 m), deer mice (Peromyscus leucopus and P. maniculatus) (33.2 ± 2.50 m), fulvous harvest mice (Reithrodontomys tulvescens) (36.3 ± 1.92 m), and gray wood rats (Neotoma micropus) (20.7 ± 1.61 m). Generally, movements of adults were larger than those of juveniles and movements of males were larger than those of females. The data indicated a need to stratify the estimated area of trap grid influence by habitat for cotton rats and by yearly rainfall for gray wood rats for more accurate density estimates. The present data may be useful to other workers for determining the area of influence for lines or grids of traps.

Twelve plant species occurring in the understory of young pine plantations in the South Carolina Coastal Plain were analyzed for phosphorus, calcium, magnesium, potassium and crude protein. Nutrient content of foliar samples from unfertilized and fertilized sites showed no significant difference for most elements. Forage production on fertilized sites was three times greater than unfertilized sites.

Nesting ecology of the American alligator (Alligator mississipiensis) was investi. gated on the Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge between 1972 and 1976. Nesting occurre~ during late June and early July. Egg counts were taken in 55 nests. Average clutch Size was 30 eggs ± 12-44. Of 110 nests studied, 90 percent were destroyed before hatching. Predation accounted for 96 percent of the nest loss with black bear (Ursus americanus) being the major nest predator. Hatching success of eggs in successful nests was estimated to be 70 percent.

Alligator (Alligator mississippiensis) eggs were collected at four intervals during incubation and subjected to a single submergence to test the effects of flooding on hatchability. Treatments consisted of a 2-hour, 6-hour, l2-hour, and 48-hour submergence. Hatching success was significantly related to duration of immersion. Throughout incubation, eggs were not affected by 2 hours of flooding, but 48 hours of submergence produced total mortality.

Three hundred and fourteen large alligators (Alligator mississippiensis) collected in the marshes of southwest Louisiana in conjunction with 1972 and 1973 autumn hunting seasons were examined for food contents. Foods were categorized by year and by marsh type. Vertebrates were the most important foods consumed, of which mammals comprised the largest percentage by weight. Arthropods and fish were important foods in the more saline areas. Thirteen percent of the adult females contained alligator eggs or egg shells in their stomach.

Yearling male white-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus) at Mammoth Cave National Park, Kentucky, had bony protuberances covered with hair in place of bone antlers. The testes were subfunctional but did contain type-A spermatogonia. The seminal vesicles were not producing seminal plasma. These abnormal deer had significantly smaller body and endocrine gland weights than normal yearling male deer. Since these abnormalities were not observed in older male deer, we considered the condition to be transitory. MorfQver we believe that the abnormalities were caused by a hormone deficiency between the anterior pituitary and the testes. Malnutrition brought on by chronic overuse of forage plants was a contributing influence.