December 01, 2020
Report details Wildlife Services’ handling of nuisance animals
The federal Wildlife Services program in 2019 removed nearly 30 million wild animals from urban, rural, and other settings where they were causing damage.
Most encounters (93%) were resolved with nonlethal means. However, Wildlife Services used lethal measures in the remainder of the cases, killing 2.2 million animals that were threatening or damaging human health and safety, agriculture, natural resources, or property.
Wildlife Services, a program run by the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service, released last year’s numbers on Oct. 5 as part of its annual report to the public.
Program activities aim to reduce or eliminate more than an estimated $232 million in annual livestock losses due to predation and $150 million in bird damage to crops caused by native and invasive wildlife annually, according to the report.
Although comprehensive estimates of all wildlife damage are difficult to make, APHIS estimates wildlife strikes on aircraft cause $625 million in losses to American civil aviation each year and have the potential to result in loss of life. The agency responds to requests for assistance from individuals, companies, and other government entities when wild animals are a problem.
Eighty-five percent of the animals removed lethally in 2019 were either an invasive species or a blackbird listed on the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Depredation Order because of the damage they cause. That order encompasses more than 18,000 brown tree snakes on Guam; 84,000 feral swine; 687,000 European starlings; 62,000 coyotes, which reportedly kill more than 300,000 livestock annually and injure even more; and 53,000 native northern pike minnow that APHIS removed to protect federally threatened and endangered salmon and steelhead trout in the Pacific Northwest.
Native species not listed in the USFWS depredation order accounted for 15% (358,195) of animals that Wildlife Services lethally removed. Lethal actions for damage management remove a small percentage of native wild animals, compared with their overall population, the report states. For example, out of an estimated 300,000 black bears, last year APHIS euthanized 400 and relocated 519, in compliance with wildlife agencies’ policies in 19 states.
When lethal control is used, APHIS works to make full use of the meat, which included donation of 138 tons of goose, deer, elk, and other meat for people in need, the report states.
Wildlife Services used $79 million in appropriated funds in 2019 to help manage wildlife damage in every state and territory and to support special programs, such as managing damage by feral swine and rabies in raccoons and other wildlife.