WILD 6650: Wildlife Techniques

Course Information: Offered each year during May through the UGA Warnell School of Forestry and Natural Resources
Course Number: WILD 4650/6650
Duration: Ten days in May, dates vary by year
Faculty Instructors: Jim Beasley

Course Description: This is a 4-hour undergraduate/graduate-level course offered during Maymester at the Savannah River Ecology Lab near Aiken, SC. The course will expose students to a variety of techniques used in contemporary wildlife research and management and provide opportunities for students to apply these techniques in a field setting. Topics will vary from year to year but will cover live-capture, handling, and chemical immobilization of wildlife, non-invasive sampling techniques for carnivores, wild-pig capture and necropsy, use of radio-telemetry to monitor animal movements, and collection and handling methods for molecular samples.

Course Goals and Learning Outcomes: In this course students will learn and gain practical hands-on experience applying contemporary field and molecular techniques commonly used in wildlife research and management. Upon completion of this course, students will be able to:

1. Describe and implement common invasive and non-invasive methods of capturing, handling, and sampling wildlife populations

2. Demonstrate knowledge of wildlife capture and handling procedures, study design, and population monitoring techniques

3. Demonstrate understanding of how genetic tools can used to address a variety of questions in wildlife ecology and conservation