1. Wildlife and Human Interaction

2. What human health problems are associated with wildlife?
Many diseases that cause illness and death in humans are carried and transmitted by wildlife.
Zoonoses are diseases transmissible from animal to man. There are over 200 such diseases.

3. What human health problems are associated with wildlife?
Lyme disease
Caused by bacteria and is transmitted by different species of black legged ticks.
The highest risk area for this disease is along the Mid Atlantic and northern U.S.
Wear protective clothing when outside.
Cover all exposed skin.

4. What human health problems are associated with wildlife?
West Nile Virus
Caused by mosquito bites
Affects people, horses, and birds most commonly.
Symptoms include low-grade fever, rash or death.
WNV was first diagnosed in the U.S. in 1999.

5. What human health problems are associated with wildlife?
Lyme Disease
Mosquitoes feed on infected birds
The infected mosquitoes than bite humans and animals.
Even if bitten by an infected mosquito, you have less than a 1% chance of infection.

6. What human health problems are associated with wildlife?
Bubonic Plague
A disease that is transmitted by fleas that are infected by their host rodent.
Symptoms include swollen and very tender lymph gland, accompanied by pain, fever, chills, and headache.
The average occurrence has been cases per year.

7. What human health problems are associated with wildlife?
Rabies
Transmitted by contact with the saliva of an infected animal (bite or scratch).
Although human can get rabies from wild animals, the most common way to get it is from infected domestic dogs.

8. What other problems are related to wildlife?
Bats
Use high frequency sound waves to navigate and find food.
They are nocturnal
Something that sleeps during the day and is active at night.
They scratch and crawl through attics and walls damaging the walls and leaving droppings behind.

9. What other problems are related to wildlife?
Deer and smaller mammals consume tree seedlings and other crops.
Birds can decimate grain and sunflower fields.
Predators attack livestock and other domestic animals.

10. What other problems are related to wildlife?
Economic Problems
In 1999, sheep and goat producers lost an estimated $19.9 million due to predation.
In 2000, cattle producers’ losses to predators were worth $51.6 million.
Wildlife damages to U.S. agriculture was estimated at $944 million during 2001.
Corn alone accounts for more than $90 million annually in crop damages from wildlife.

11. What other problems are related to wildlife?
Overall bird populations cause an estimated annual lose to U.S. agriculture of $100 million.
Sunflower and rice crops are a favorite of blackbirds, leading to $4 to 11 million worth of losses annually.
Apples, blueberries and grapes have been estimated at more than $40 million in damages.

12. What other problems are related to wildlife?
During one year in Pennsylvania, white tailed deer cause crop losses totaling $30 million.
An estimated $100 million in damage each year to private and public property is due to beavers.
Mississippi catfish farmers lose nearly $6 million worth of fingerlings to fish eating birds.