Wildlife Biology and Natural History: Time for a Reunion

I find considerable evidence that wildlife management has broken partially free of its roots and is show- ing signs of malnourishment. It also is beset with various ailments, including addiction to technology, lust for sta- tistics, professional hubris, and the delusion that research and management are synonymous. The wildlife man- agement discipline started as applied natural history, and most of its star practitioners were broad-based naturalists, intimate with the landscapes and organisms in their charge. There are reasons to believe that the wildlife profes- sion would do well to regraft itself to those natural history roots, especially in view of the changing roles that will be manifest as this century comes of age.