Breadcrumb

1. Home

2. Print 

3. Pdf 

4. Node 

5. Entity Print 

USDA Wildlife Services Posts Fiscal

Year 2022 Data on Management

Actions and Funding Sources

Print

On March 23, the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) wildlife damage

management program, Wildlife Services (WS), posted its annual Program Data

Reports (PDR) for fiscal year (FY) 2022. The reports are available on the USDA’s

Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) webpage, representing the 27th

year that WS has shared this information about its wildlife damage management

activities.

In the United States, wildlife is a public resource held in trust and managed by

government agencies for present and future generations. Wildlife is a highly valued

natural resource that provides important ecosystem services, food and clothing, and

recreational activities that generate billions of dollars of economic activity annually.

While wildlife contributes a lot of positive value to the human environment, they also

can have negative impacts on agriculture, human health and safety, property, and

natural resources. Predators cause an estimated $232 million in losses to livestock

producers annually and bird damage to crops exceeds $150 million each year. Bird

and other wildlife strikes with aircraft cost hundreds of millions of dollars in damage,

delay flights, and threaten human health and safety. Abundant predators can have

dramatic impacts on threatened and endangered species as in the case of nesting

piping plovers and sea turtles which are vulnerable to raccoons, foxes, and invasive
feral swine. APHIS responds to requests for assistance from individuals, companies,

and other government agencies when wildlife causes or threatens damage to human

health/safety, agriculture, natural resources, and property.

In FY 2022, APHIS encountered about 21.5 million animals causing damage, or

threatening to cause damage, while responding to calls for assistance and dispersed

nearly 20 million of these animals unharmed from urban, rural, and other settings.

APHIS dispersed 91.4% of the animals encountered. However, nonlethal methods

cannot resolve all wildlife related conflicts. Of all wildlife encountered, APHIS lethally

removed 8.6%, or approximately 1.85 million, from areas where damage was

occurring. Invasive species accounted for 79% (1,466,580) of the wildlife lethally

removed. Additionally:

The invasive species removed included 1,175,244 European starlings, 136,791

feral swine, and more than 11,000 brown tree snakes in Guam.

60,279 were native Northern pike minnow that APHIS removed to protect

federally threatened and endangered salmon and steelhead in the Pacific

Northwest.

In instances where lethal control was necessary, APHIS worked to donate as much

animal meat as possible. In FY 2022, APHIS donated nearly 150 tons of deer, goose,

and other meat—more than 1 million servings of protein for people in need—and

over 20 tons of meat for animal consumption to animal rehab centers, zoos, and

other facilities, making full use of this resource from wildlife damage management

work.

Program Data Reports

APHIS WS carries out its activities with a combination of congressionally

appropriated and cooperator provided funding. In FY 2022, WS received $109.2

million in appropriated funds (49% of its total budget) to manage wildlife damage

operations in every state and territory, conduct research, and to support special

programs, such as managing feral swine damage and rabies in raccoons and other

wildlife. Funding from program cooperators — including federal and state agencies,

counties, livestock producers, and other agricultural producer groups, other

organizations, businesses, and individuals — allowed WS to maximize its scope and

effectiveness. During FY 2022, WS received $111.5 million in cooperator-provided

funding (51% of its total budget) for operational wildlife damage management (see

PDR A for funding sources and expenditures nationally and by state). In FY 2022,
APHIS spent its budget as follows:

36.5% to protect agriculture, including livestock, row crops, aquaculture, and

timber.

31.5% to reduce or prevent wildlife hazards to human health and safety, such

as wildlife collisions with aircraft and disease transmission.

19% on protection of property.

13% on natural resource protection, including threatened and endangered

species.

Data Highlights

The PDRs list the work carried out by APHIS wildlife biologists and field specialists,

with information by state, species, and other details. Some key FY 2022 highlights

include the following:

WS and its cooperators protected more than 335 threatened or endangered

wildlife and plant species from the impacts of disease, invasive species, and

predators. Partners seeking assistance, including private organizations and

federal, state, and local wildlife agencies, financially support most of these

operations. (PDR B).

PDR C identifies the specific resources protected and the wildlife species that

threaten or damage the resources in operations where a stakeholder,

cooperator, or WS has reported a value of the damage. It identifies the number

and species of recorded threats or damage to the reported damage value.

About two-thirds of the recorded wildlife conflicts were associated with wildlife

damage to property and agricultural resources.

In FY 2022, APHIS reached more than 200,000 participants in more than 70,000

information-sharing projects. These technical assistance projects, including

telephone or onsite consultations, written materials, and training, help

individuals resolve wildlife conflicts they are experiencing. PDR D details

technical assistance projects by state, type of service, and wildlife species.

PDR E highlights APHIS’ work to reduce aviation strikes with wildlife at 814

airports. The airports and agencies requesting assistance from WS’ Airport

Wildlife Hazard Program paid for this work under cooperative service

agreements. In FY 2022, WS trained 6,098 personnel on airport wildlife hazard

identification and management.

APHIS wildlife disease biologists collected over 57,700 wildlife disease samples

to test for 31 different diseases and conditions in wild mammals, birds, and
reptiles as part of the National Wildlife Disease Program. PDR F details the

activity. This is a 41% increase in sampling from FY 2021, in large part due to

Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza (HPAI) sampling. Avian influenza accounted

for approximately 26% of the disease samples taken in FY 2022 (15,083), an

increase from 5,621 samples taken in FY 2021. About 22% (12,667) of the

samples were collected for the National Rabies Management Program. APHIS

employees collected 11,033 SARS-CoV-2 samples in FY 2022, which amounted

to 19.12% of the total disease samples taken. APHIS took samples from feral

swine for 9 diseases or conditions, genetics, or other research. Most sampling in

feral swine was for classical swine fever, pseudorabies, swine brucellosis, and

genetics.

PDR G lists the number of animals dispersed, killed/euthanized, or freed during

APHIS’ wildlife damage management operations. APHIS implements an

integrated damage management approach which uses a variety of effective

and practical nonlethal and lethal methods to resolve wildlife damage

problems. As noted above, APHIS removed 1.85 million animals in FY 2022,

including 1.47 million invasive wildlife and 383,731 native wildlife.

Invasive European starlings, native blackbirds, and other species listed on the

U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Depredation Order comprise 65% of animals

APHIS lethally removed in FY 2022, totaling 1,219,681 birds with minimal

population effect. For example, APHIS removed less than 1⁄2 of 1% of the

national estimated red-winged blackbird and brown-headed cowbird breeding

populations of 150 million and 120 million, respectively. These abundant birds

cause extensive damage to food crops, such as rice and other grains, livestock,

property, and other commodities, and they pose a human health and safety

concern. APHIS used nonlethal methods to disperse an additional 11 million

starlings, blackbirds, cowbirds, crows, grackles, and magpies from areas where

they were causing damage.

WS methods are highly selective towards the species causing damage. More

than 99.8% of the animals lethally removed were the intended targets of APHIS’

wildlife damage management actions. However, APHIS did unintentionally

remove 2,503 native animals. WS tracks and reports unintended removal and

adapts field operations to minimize unintentional take, wherever possible.

Invasive species accounted for 79% of all lethally removed wildlife in FY 2022,

including 136,791 invasive feral swine removed as part of the National Feral

Swine Damage Management Program.
In contrast, native species accounted for only 21% (383,731) of all animals WS

lethally removed. Lethal actions for damage management remove a small

percentage of native wildlife compared to their overall populations or range. For

example, out of an estimated 300,000 black bears nationwide, APHIS

euthanized 450 and relocated 599 black bears in 22 states, in compliance with

the states’ wildlife agencies’ policies.

Due to their nationwide abundance, coyotes are the most common predator of

livestock, killing more than 300,000 head of cattle/calves, sheep/lambs, and

goats/kids annually according to National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS)

surveys of livestock producers. The 2020 NASS Sheep and Lamb Death Loss

Report noted that coyote predation accounted for 32.6% of sheep losses and

40.1% of lamb losses. More than three-quarters (77.1%) of producers used

nonlethal predator damage management methods, spending approximately

$51.4 million to prevent predation on livestock. WS works in partnership with

livestock producers to reduce predation through integrated damage

management programs. In FY 2022, WS removed 56,089 coyotes nationwide

during wildlife damage management operations to protect resources. By

comparison, trappers and hunters across 37 states where coyote harvest is

tracked took an average of approximately 463,000 coyotes annually over the

last five years of published data (2014 – 2018) in state-regulated fur harvests.

APHIS treated 14,910 acres using EPA-registered products to resolve damage.

APHIS used zinc phosphide wheat or oats for control of various rodents (7,599

acres). Delta Dust insecticide reduced plague-vector fleas in prairie dog tunnels

for the protection of the endangered black-footed ferrets (7,311 acres).

Most species whose damage APHIS actively manages are abundant or have

increasing populations and/or expanding ranges. APHIS balances its focused efforts

to resolve wildlife conflicts with stewardship responsibilities toward the long-term

maintenance and health of wildlife populations.

As a federal agency with public trust responsibilities to manage wildlife for present

and future generations, APHIS complies with all federal and state laws, such as the

National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), Migratory Bird Treaty Act, and

Endangered Species Act, as well as executive orders pertaining to invasive species

management. APHIS conducts careful environmental review of all agency actions

through a NEPA process that includes public involvement. To learn more, please visit

the WS Website.