Application of Ecological Principles to the Management of Endangered Species: The Case of the Red-Cockaded Woodpecker

A major development in the biological sciences in the 1980s was the emergence of the discipline known as conservation biology. The rise of conservation biology was triggered by growing concern about environmental problems such as tropical deforestation and the loss of biodiversity (50). Historically, conservation biology may be viewed as a union between parts of the fields of wildlife biology and ecology (50) that reflects the maturation of both. Wildlife biology has always focused on conservation and management of natural resources. Attention was originally concentrated on those few species that were hunted (45, p. 2) and, as in all disciplines, research was mostly descriptive. Management techniques developed largely through trial and error. As the field developed, its focus broadened to include nongame species, particularly endangered species. Interest in the basic biology of the species and ecosystems of concern grew, and management increasingly was based on deductions derived from fundamental understanding of the systems involved rather than from trial and error. Within ecology, the relevant changes have been in theory. The theory developed in the 1950s, 1960s, and early 1970s (e.g. 37) can be characterized