Pennsylvania Game News - August 2019 - 16

comfortable in their pursuits.

STUDYING EFFECTS

Tony Ross

Climate's influence on wildlife always
has been of interest to wildlife managers.
Today, there are many elaborate
weather centers and research stations
to serve as a guide. But back in the late
1930s, the Game Commission sought its
own answers with something it built and
called the "climoactometer."
The device had a climate chamber
where game animals were placed and
subjected to induced and varied climatic
conditions. For sure, white-tailed deer
and game birds, ranging from quail to
pheasants, were placed in the device,
where their perseverance and response
to changing environments were recorded.
The chamber, built at the agency's
Loyalsock Experiment Station in 1939,
adjacent to the game farm, helped agency
game managers sort out animals' winter
food requirements, the effects of fasting
on physical health, and the "effects of wettings upon young game birds," according
to the agency's 1941-42 Biennial Report.
Surely the inspiration to build this
weather chamber, some 80 years ago,
wasn't prompted by weather as destructive and unpredictable as today's.
This research came at a time when the
agency was stocking and introducing an
assortment of wildlife to Penn's Woods.
It probably was built to ensure the Game
Commission's continuing purchase of
game was worth the expense.

WEIGHING RISKS
In a time when phrases such as climate
change, heat wave, extreme weather and polar
vortexes have become more commonly associated with weather reports in hunting season,
hunters find themselves making decisions that
probably weren't considered much earlier in
their hunting careers.
Add to that the increasing fragility of Penn's
Woods caused by forest pests, and the risks
associated with ticks, deer keds and Lyme disease, and it quickly becomes clear that hunting
isn't that walk in the woods it used to be.
That's a take-home message every Pennsylvanian should hold as near and dear to his or
her heart as family. Hunting comes with risks,
some influenced by weather, some influenced
by other natural factors. Recognizing these risks
and potential rewards is critically important
to everyone who steps afield. Sometimes, it
simply is better to stay home.
As important as hunting is to the management of Pennsylvania's game animals, no trip
afield is worth risking your life. So, keep that in
mind as you debate hunting in the heat, wind,
or rain. Then think about who's waiting for you
to come home from hunting, and what it would
be like if you didn't.

With the clarity of hindsight, it's clear
that much of it wasn't!
Still, it's worth noting climate does
govern the natural diversity of Penn's
Woods, by defining the thresholds of species existence. Only time will tell which
members of Pennsylvania's wildlife community will have the ecological fitness to
fit in and coexist.
But it's obvious change is coming.
It always has and always will. Almost
all life faces change's uncertainty.

Pennsylvania Game News - August 2019

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