The large increase in outdoor recreation activity over the last 50 years has been recognized as a potentially serious threat to North American wildlife populations. Threats to wildlife in wilderness are a concern to backcountry recreationists as well as the American public. The protection of wildlife habitat and endangered species was one of the most highly valued benefits of wilderness according to a telephone survey of approximately 1,900 people in the United States (Cordell and others 1998). Many backcountry recreation users cite the opportunity to view wildlife as an important part of their wilderness experience. Threats to wildlife in wilderness are also a concern for wildlife preservation. Wilderness often provides a refuge for wildlife amid a matrix of more intensively developed lands, and is especially valuable for wide-ranging species that are sensitive to human disturbance and those that depend on special habitats found predominantly in wilderness (Hendee and Mattson 2002). Impacts of recreation on wildlife include increased energetic demands during critical periods of the year, loss of habitat through avoidance of areas of human activity, exposure to predators while avoiding humans, and loss of habitat through changes in vegetation resulting from recreation activities (Knight and Gutzwiller 1995). If widespread, cumulative impacts on individuals of a species may ultimately affect local and regional populations. Changes in species' populations may affect wildlife communities, especially if the impacted species have strong interactions with other species. The management of wilderness recreation impacts on wildlife in designated wilderness is complicated by the potentially conflicting mandates of The Wilderness Act of 1964 [Public Law 88-577]. The Act mandates the preservation of natural conditions in wilderness while requiring managers to provide opportunities for primitive recreation. However, when recreation affects wildlife species, populations, or communities, it can hinder the preservation of natural conditions. To address the dual mandates, appropriate wilderness recreational activities must not only be provided, but must be managed to minimize their impacts on wildlife, and more broadly, to wilderness ecosystems. Wilderness managers can use direct approaches such as restricting visitor numbers, activities, or access in some areas. In backcountry areas outside of designated wilderness, manipulating wildlife and wildlife habitat may be appropriate. Indirect approaches may also be used, such as visitor education and the careful location and design of trails, trailheads, and adjacent roads and campgrounds. We have compiled this annotated list of references to help wildlife, wilderness, and recreation managers better understand backcountry recreation impacts on wildlife and be informed of the variety of management tools available for minimizing impacts. Managing recreation impacts on wildlife is an interdisciplinary issue, with management decisions affecting both wildlife and visitors. We have designed this reading list to cross disciplinary boundaries. The reading list includes literature from the wildlife discipline, such as papers needed to understand impacts on wildlife, as well as literature from the recreation discipline that is needed to understand recreation management techniques. We suggest the expansion of future research to include other animal species that may be important to local ecosystems and/or have restricted ranges that overlap extensively with areas of high recreational use. Finally, previous studies on wildlife responses to primitive recreational activities have focused mainly on hiking. Managers would benefit from additional research on activities such as horseback riding, rock climbing, cross-country skiing, and kayaking in marine coastal areas.

Increasing levels of recreational use in wilderness, backcountry, and roadless areas has the potential to impact wildlife species, including those that depend on these protected areas for survival. Wildlife and wilderness managers will be more successful at reducing these impacts if they understand the potential impacts, factors affecting the magnitude of impacts, and available management strategies and implementation methods. In this reading list, we summarize over 230 books, articles, bibliographies, and Internet resources to provide managers with relevant research on backcountry recreation impacts on terrestrial wildlife amid the vast literature on this topic. The first section illustrates the importance of considering backcountry recreation impacts on wildlife, both for wildlife conservation and enhancement of wilderness visitor experiences. The second section reviews important concepts such as the types of impacts, methods for assessing them, and models for understanding these impacts. The third section provides an overview of field studies that documents recreation impacts on specific wildlife species and taxonomic groups. The fourth section contains information on management planning frameworks and specific techniques that may be useful for minimizing impacts of backcountry recreation to wildlife. The final section offers Internet resources and previous bibliographies related to the topic.

This book describes the state of the art of tourism planning and management in national parks and protected areas. It also provides guidelines for best practice in tourism operations. Other objectives are to: Describe case studies and guidelines that contribute to conservation of biological diversity; consider the role of local communities within or near these areas; outline the development of tourism infrastructure and services; discuss visitor management; provide guidelines to enhance the quality of the tourism experience. The focus is global and the book will appeal to both academics and practitioners.

Remote photography and infrared sensors are widely used in the sampling of wildlife populations worldwide, especially for cryptic or elusive species. Guiding the practitioner through the entire process of using camera traps, this book is the first to compile state-of-the-art sampling techniques for the purpose of conducting high-quality science or effective management. Chapters on the evaluation of equipment, field sampling designs, and data analysis methods provide a coherent framework for making inferences about the abundance, species richness, and occupancy of sampled animals. The volume introduces new models that will revolutionize use of camera data to estimate population density, such as the newly developed spatial capture–recapture models. It also includes richly detailed case studies of camera trap work on some of the world’s most charismatic, elusive, and endangered wildlife species. Indispensible to wildlife conservationists, ecologists, biologists, and conservation agencies around the world, the text provides a thorough review of the subject as well as a forecast for the use of remote photography in natural resource conservation over the next few decades.

Spatial Capture-Recapture provides a comprehensive how-to manual with detailed examples of spatial capture-recapture models based on current technology and knowledge. Spatial Capture-Recapture provides you with an extensive step-by-step analysis of many data sets using different software implementations. The authors' approach is practical – it embraces Bayesian and classical inference strategies to give the reader different options to get the job done. In addition, Spatial Capture-Recapture provides data sets, sample code and computing scripts in an R package. - Comprehensive reference on revolutionary new methods in ecology makes this the first and only book on the topic - Every methodological element has a detailed worked example with a code template, allowing you to learn by example - Includes an R package that contains all computer code and data sets on companion website