wildlife services

Imagine investigators navigating city streets, collecting clues on a hidden health threat from the city’s furry inhabitants. Norway rats (Rattus norvegicus) living in New York City are helping to uncover the secrets of zoonotic diseases – illnesses that move between animals and humans. This is critical because early detection and response to zoonotic and emerging diseases while still in animals is essential in limiting or preventing human outbreaks.

Rabies, one of the oldest known diseases, remains a significant wildlife-management and public-health challenge. September 28^th will mark the 17^th annual World Rabies Day, a global health observance started in 2007 to raise awareness about the disease and enhance prevention and control efforts worldwide.

Wildlife Services (WS) experts are exploring how fladry, a nonlethal tool used to protect cattle, sheep, and other livestock from wolves, can prevent other wildlife damage.

For the first time ever, expert tree climbers with the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service’s (APHIS) Asian Longhorned Beetle (ALB) Eradication Program trained fellow APHIS employees from another program on how to climb trees with a purpose.

When turkey vultures gather in large groups in urban areas, they can cause safety concerns due to their abundant fecal droppings and as hazards to air traffic. Wildlife Services (WS) biologists often manage vulture damage by modifying habitats to remove the things that attract them, such as perches or food sources. Vultures are also dispersed by pyrotechnics or effigies (PDF, 1.8 MB). Soon, a more high-tech solution may be available.

It’s often said that, “good fences make good neighbors.” And in Wisconsin, the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service's Wildlife Services (WS) helped a sheep producer prove that saying true again. Using funds allocated for nonlethal livestock protection, WS designed and built a fence for the producer to keep gray wolves at bay.

In May, APHIS was awarded the prestigious Presidential Migratory Bird Federal Stewardship Award by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. The recognition is for Wildlife Services (WS) work with diverse partners to protect the Hawaiian goose and Laysan albatross from dangerous collisions with aircraft and to increase the birds’ populations and nesting habitats.

A variety of wildlife species—from birds to rodents and rabbits—often visit airport environments leading to safety concerns for both wildlife and airline passengers. Collisions between wildlife and aircraft have increased in the past 30 years because of an increase in both hazardous wildlife species populations and aircraft movements. To help reduce the risk of these potentially dangerous interactions, USDA-APHIS Wildlife Services (WS) biologists provide airport operators across the Nation with advice and recommendations on how to keep runways and flight paths clear of wildlife.