Habitat Management

The most critical aspect of wildlife conservation is habitat management. Habitat loss presents the greatest threat to wildlife.

Five essential elements must be present to provide a viable habitat: food, water, cover, space, and arrangement.

• The need for food and water is obvious. Cover is not only needed as shelter from the elements and predators, but it’s also necessary to protect animals while they are feeding, breeding, roosting, nesting, and traveling. Cover can range from thick weeds and brush to a few rocks piled together.
• Space is necessary to avoid over-competition for food. Some animals also need a certain amount of territorial space for mating and nesting. When crowded, some species may develop stress-related diseases.
• Arrangement refers to the placement of food, water, cover, and space in a habitat. The ideal arrangement allows animals to meet all of their needs in a small area so that they minimize the energy they use when traveling from food to cover to water.

For example, some quail will spend much of their time where shrub and grassland areas converge. This is called edge effect. Most animals can be found where food and cover meet, particularly near a water source. River bottoms are ideal, offering many animals all their habitat needs along one corridor.

habitat: Complete environmental requirements of an animal for survival: food, water, cover, space, and arrangement

edge effect: Habitat conditions of an area created when two types of habitat are brought together

Balancing Act

Habitats must be in balance in order to support wildlife. Remove a certain population of plants or animals from a community, and the community may not survive. This typically happens when urban development pushes into wildlife areas.