This book is structured as two interlocking parts. The first provides an overview ofwildlife ecology, as distinct from that portion of applied ecology that is called wildlifemanagement and conservation. The chapters on wildlife ecology (Chapters 2–11)cover such topics as growth and regulation of wildlife populations, spatial patternsof population distribution, and interactions among plants, herbivores, carnivores, anddisease pathogens. While these topics are often covered in introductory biology or ecologycourses, they rarely focus on the issues of most concern to a wildlife specialist. Asolid understanding of ecological concepts is vital in formulating successful wildlifeconservation and management policy. In particular, you will need an understandingof the theory of population dynamics and of the relationship between populations,their predators, and their resources if you are to make sensible judgments on the likelyconsequences of one management action versus another.The second section deals with wildlife conservation and management (Chapters12–22). These chapters cover census techniques, how to test hypotheses experimentally,how to evaluate alternative models as tools for conservation and management,and the threemajor aspects of wildlife management: conservation, sustained yield, andcontrol. In closing, Chapter 22 places the problems of wildlife management into thecontext of the ecosystem. Species populations cannot be managed in isolation becausethey are influenced by, and they themselves influence, many other components of theecosystem. In the long run, wildlife management becomes ecosystem management.