Population control

This article is about population control in non-humans. For the practice among humans, see Human population planning. For the Statik Selektah album, see Population Control (album). For the book by Steven W. Mosher, see Population Control: Real Costs, Illusory Benefits.

Population control is the practice of artificially maintaining the size of any population. It simply refers to the act of limiting the size of an animal population so that it remains manageable, as opposed to the act of protecting a species from excessive rates of extinction, which is referred to as conservation biology.[1][2][3]

While many abiotic and biotic factors influence population control, humans are notably influential against animal populations. Whether humans need to hunt animals for food, exterminate a pest, or reduce competition for resources, managing populations involves providing nourishment, or neutering to prevent reproduction, culling individuals or the use of pesticides. Population control plays an important role in wildlife populations. Based on the species being dealt with, there are numerous ways populations of the wild are controlled. Wildlife contraception is the act of preventing reproduction in the wild, which subsequently decreases populations. An example of this includes the maintenance of deer populations with the use of vaccines.[4][5] Other methods to maintain populations include lethal trapping, live trapping, egg/roost site manipulation, live-ammunition shooting, and chemical euthanization. Lethal trapping, egg/roost site manipulation, live-ammunition shooting, and chemical euthanization are methods used to eliminate animal populations and prevent reproduction, whereas live trapping captures species to remove them from a specific area.[6]

  1. ^ Sahney, Sarda; Benton, Michael J (2008-04-07). "Recovery from the most profound mass extinction of all time". Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences. 275 (1636): 759–765. doi:10.1098/rspb.2007.1370. ISSN 0962-8452. PMC 2596898. PMID 18198148.
  2. ^ Conservation biology : an evolutionary-ecological perspective. Michael E. Soulé, Bruce A. Wilcox. Sunderland, Mass. 1980. ISBN 0-87893-800-1. OCLC 5677875.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link) CS1 maint: others (link)
  3. ^ Soulé, Michael E. (December 1985). "What Is Conservation Biology?". BioScience. 35 (11): 727–734. doi:10.2307/1310054. JSTOR 1310054.
  4. ^ "Deer 'pill' curbs aggressive mating". BBC News. 2011-09-01. Retrieved 2022-03-25.
  5. ^ Magazine, Smithsonian. "Oh Deer!". Smithsonian Magazine. Retrieved 2022-03-25.
  6. ^ Defusco, Russell P.; Unangst, Edward T. (2013). Read "Airport Wildlife Population Management" at NAP.edu. doi:10.17226/22599. ISBN 978-0-309-22385-0.