The Benefits of Wildlife

Wildlife enhances our lives

Inuit boy with Arctic Terns

Canadians love and appreciate wildlife. For many of us wildlife provides powerful images that help define the very essence of our country: the cry of a loon echoing across a lonely lake, the power and majesty of a polar bear, great Vs of Canada Geese wheeling in the sky. The experience of wildlife enriches the lives of all Canadians.

There are important emotional and social reasons why humans need to experience wildlife and nature from time to time. We all have to recharge our batteries, to get out and breathe a little fresh air. Sometimes simply taking a walk in the park or setting up a backyard bird feeder is enough; at other times we seek more active pastimes such as hiking, hunting, canoeing, or wildlife photography.

Birding at the gannet colony, Cape St. Mary's, Newfoundland

The quality of these experiences is directly related to the quality of our Canadian wildlife and wildlife habitat.

Canadians are starting to learn that wildlife is not merely a source of personal pleasure, as deep and meaningful as that pleasure might be. We are beginning to understand that the health of our wildlife is an excellent indication of the health of the environment on which we depend, and that healthy wildlife populations and habitat are important to our social and economic well-being.

Wildlife is important to people

From prehistoric times to the present, the muskox has provided the Inuit with meat, warm sleeping robes, and horn used to make implements and weapons. Inuit also regard the muskox as the source of spiritual gifts, such as a song for hunters.

It is relatively easy to recognize the direct value of wildlife to Canada's native peoples, who often rely on the wild harvest for food, clothing, and income. For some of Canada's native populations, over half of their total income comes directly from hunting, fishing, and trapping, while food taken from the bush can account for a high percentage of dietary needs. Wildlife also figures prominently in aboriginal art, legend, and ceremony. Seasonal migrations of wildlife species may be times of intense communal ritual and renewal.

And, even though most Canadians may not depend directly on wildlife for their livelihood as aboriginals do, the role that wildlife plays in their lives is still very important. Through the ages wildlife has inspired such human activities as art, music, dance, drama, story-telling, and poetry. It also plays an important part in our spiritual lives, at the very least reminding us of the complexity and wonder of our world. And millions of Canadians of all ages are hanging out bird feeders, buying special seed mixtures, and volunteering on behalf of wildlife. Witness the more than 10,000 Canadians across the country who take the time to venture out into the snow for the Christmas Bird Count, an annual census to determine numbers and species of birds wintering in Canada.

Statistics Canada, on behalf of the Canadian Wildlife Service and provincial wildlife agencies, carries out an extensive survey on the importance of wildlife to Canadians. The survey asks Canadians 15 years and older about their attitudes toward the importance of healthy and abundant wildlife populations, participation in a number of wildlife-related activities, and wildlife-related expenditures. The survey has been carried out in 1981, 1987, and 1991. The 1987 and 1991 surveys also included questions about recreational fishing.

The results of the most recent survey were published by the Canadian Wildlife Service in 1993 and 1994. The survey showed that the great majority of Canadians believe that it is important to maintain abundant wildlife (86 percent of the population) and to protect endangered or declining wildlife species (83 percent). Activities that depend on fish and wildlife were a popular form of recreation for most Canadians. In fact, 91 percent of the surveyed population, or an estimated 19 million Canadians, were involved in some form of wildlife-related activity or recreational fishing. And most of them (73 percent) took part in two or more activities during the year.

Other findings:

• 14.5 million Canadians (70 percent of the population) participated in wildlife-related activities around their residence or cottage. These activities included feeding, watching, studying, or photographing wildlife. Some 6.6 million people put out special feed for wildlife.
  
• 3.9 million people made trips or outings whose primary purpose was to enjoy wildlife.
  
• 1.5 million Canadians hunted.
  
• 5.5 million Canadians participated in recreational fishing.
  
• 1.9 million Canadians belonged or contributed to wildlife organizations.
  
• 17.7 million Canadians (85 percent of the population) took part in activities such as watching wildlife films or television programs, reading wildlife books or magazines, visiting game farms, zoos, aquariums, or natural history museums, or purchasing wildlife art, crafts, or posters.
  

These figures show the dimensions of the attraction that wildlife has for Canadians. Activities that depend on wildlife area a vital part of the everyday lives of an overwhelming majority of Canadians.

Wildlife is important to natural processes

Wildlife and wildlife habitat play a vital role in the ecological and biological processes that are essential to life itself. The functioning of the biosphere, and hence the maintenance and enhancement of human life, depends on countless interactions among plants, animals, and microorganisms.

These ecological processes are essential for agriculture, forestry, fisheries, and other endeavours necessary to human life. They also help maintain environmental quality by degrading and otherwise removing some pollutants and by preventing waste accumulation.

Some of the biological processes in which wild species play a key role are pollinization, germination, seed dispersal, soil generation, nutrient cycling, predation, habitat maintenance, waste breakdown, and pest control. Birds, for example, can be important in controlling insect pests. The Evening Grosbeak's appetite for larva of the spruce budworm, a serious pest in softwood forests, makes it one of our most beneficial songbirds. Studies have shown that the Hairy Woodpecker and Downy Woodpecker are important in controlling the codling moth in apple orchards in Nova Scotia.

Wildlife is important to science, agriculture, and medicine

Studies in Nova Scotia have found that woodpeckers destroyed up to 90 percent of codling moth larvae overwintering under the bark of apple trees.

Wildlife and wildlife habitat are also important for the preservation of genetic diversity. Canada's agriculture, forests, and fisheries all rely on crops or stocks that are adapted to local or regional conditions and that can withstand pests, diseases, predators, pollutants, and other threats. The diverse genetic material present in Canada's heritage of living resources can help ensure that the forest, crops, and stocks Canadians rely on will remain varied and resilient enough to withstand an ever-increasing list of threats.

Likewise, in medicine, the development of new drugs and treatments depends greatly on wildlife and wildlife habitat. In fact, most pharmaceutical products were discovered or developed by studying wild species, not invented on the basis of the principles of chemistry.

Many modern remedies contain one or more ingredients derived from a wild plant or animal. One familiar example is aspirin. Its active ingredient is salicin, which is found in the bark of willow trees. A more recent example is taxol, a compound derived from the bark of the western yew in the old-growth forests in British Columbia. Taxol damages cancerous cells but not normal ones, and is being used to treat various kinds of cancers. Of Canada's 134 native tree species, 38 have one or more recorded medical uses according to aboriginal, folk, or modern medical sources.

Frogs may one day be the source of some astonishing medicines. Researchers in Australia, Japan, and the USA have found numerous medical uses for compounds extracted from the secretions of frogs, such as a nonaddictive painkiller 200 times more powerful than morphine, antibiotics, a possible treatment for schizophrenia, and a natural glue that could replace stitches after surgery. The natural world is indeed a potent medicine chest.

Wildlife recreation is important to the Canadian economy

Photographing moose.

Every spring, migrating songbirds draw thousands of visitors to Point Pelee National Park in southern Ontario. Close to 40 species of brightly coloured warblers visit the park, and so do thousands of bird watchers, who spend almost $6 million a year on accommodation, food, travel, and equipment. The presence of these visitors makes a significant contribution to the local economy. Every fall over 90,000 people visit Cap Tourmente in southern Quebec to view migrating snow geese. This influx of visitors creates seasonal job opportunities and benefits the local economy. Similar benefits accrue in centres where whale watching, polar bear observation, or seabird viewing has become an attraction.

Fishing at sunset.

These are just a few examples of the importance of wildlife to a local economy. When expenditures on wildlife-related activities are computed on a national scale, as in the Statistics Canada survey, the totals are impressive. Canadians spent $8.3 billion on fish and wildlife related recreational activities in 1991. This money went for everything from licence fees for hunting and fishing to binoculars for birdwatching, and from outdoor clothing to transportation and hotels. The economic stimulus provided by these expenditures supported 188,000 jobs, contributed $10.2 billion to the Gross Domestic Product, and put tax revenues worth $4.6 billion into government coffers across Canada. The chart shows the breakdown of these benefits province by province.

The Canadian economy also benefits from the expenditures of foreign tourists who travel to Canada in pursuit of wildlife experiences. For example, nearly 2 million Americans visited Canada for its fish and wildlife in 1991 and spent $842 million, according to a US Census Bureau study. These expenditures created economic benefits additional to those in the chart resulting from expenditures by Canadians.