The National Wildlife Control Training Program: An Evolution in Wildlife Damage Management Education for Industry Professionals

Managing wildlife and reducing damage in rural areas has traditionally been achieved by hunting and trapping problem species or by preventing animals from accessing crops and entering buildings. With urban sprawl, specialized tools and management approaches often are needed to reduce wildlife conflicts in developed landscapes. To address these issues, the private wildlife control industry has grown considerably during the past 2 decades. State wildlife agencies have regulatory authority and oversight of this industry, and there is an increasing trend toward licensing or certification of commercial wildlife control operators (WCOs). Regulations differ in every state, however, and no consistent standard for training WCOs exists. We developed the National Wildlife Control Training Program (NWCTP) to provide a uniform standard for demonstrating core competency and understanding of integrated wildlife damage management (IWDM) principles. The NWCTP includes modules on basic principles of IWDM, physical safety, wildlife diseases, site inspection, general control methods, trapping, exclusion, toxicants, animal handling, euthanasia, legal, and ethical issues, and professionalism. The NWCTP was designed to be easily adapted for use in any state or province, and we encourage wildlife agencies that lack training materials to adopt the NWCTP.