Information transfer for wildlife management

Wildlife Services (WS) is comprised of research [National Wildlife Research Center (NWRC)] and operations entities. WS personnel indicated that WS wou ld operate more efficiently if information transfer between research and op erations could be improved. In response, we conducted a survey of informati on transfer between WS research and operations. We surveyed wildlife manage ment field employees in the operational component of WS to 1) determine whe ther they have sufficient access to wildlife management information, 2) ide ntify some of their wildlife information needs, and 3) identify approaches to increase the efficiency of information transfer between research and ope rations personnel. Respondents indicated that operations personnel felt the y received more wildlife management-related information from NWRC than from other sources. Respondents were evenly split as to whether they received a dequate job-related information from NWRC. Perceived knowledge and applicab ility of 10 wildlife management techniques were correlated positively. Fiel d personnel great ly valued interpersonal forms of communication. The most favored sources of information about wildlife management techniques were on e-on-one training, workshops, demonstrations, and videos. Our findings sugg est methods to improve information transfer not only within WS but also bet ween research and field personnel throughout the wildlife management commun ity.