Date of Award

2021

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Bachelors

Department

Natural Sciences

First Advisor

Heffernan, Emily

Area of Concentration

Biology

Abstract

Federal and state agencies are frequently faced with numerous challenges when drafting wildlife management policies for species of concern. There are often several stakeholder groups with differing management objectives, and a limited amount of funding, resources and available biological data make it challenging for these agencies to balance public, private and scientific concerns. One useful tool for providing a more informed picture of a species’ population status is to perform a population viability analysis (PVA), where aggregated life-history data is input into a simulation to model the projected population dynamics and evaluate the risk of extinction for the species. The grey wolf (Canis lupus) is a species endemic to the northern half of Minnesota state. While the MN Department of Natural Resources proposed a managment plan in 2001 in anticipation of federal delisting, it did not include extensive planning for population modeling and extinction evaluation. In light of this, I performed a PVA of the MN population using available historical data. While the resulting simulation model did not predict any impending risk of extirpation for the MN population, it highlighted a relative lack of available life history data for MN wolves that should receive directed scientific inquiry in the future, in addition to adjacent areas of conservation research that would benefit wolf management in Minnesota, such as the vulnerability of the population to climate change.

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