Predominantly, her job entails resolving situations in a mutually beneficial way between people and animals as they compete for the same habitats. "It is an issue of survival for the animals," Kim said. "People can pick up and move but an animal can’t." She pointed out that in most cases, if an animal is moved more than 5 miles away from its home range it does not survive since it doesn’t know where the food, water and shelter is, and those areas already have their own established populations.

The much-publicized conflict with black bears is a result of the increase in its population and the subsequent expansion of their range to the eastern and southern areas of the state. The most frequent clashes involve young males (yearlings) who have been runoff by their mothers and then not allowed to stay in a particular area by established older adult males.They keep moving trying to establish their own new territory, but many times they come into conflict with humans while doing so. When they are only a nuisance (raiding garbage cans, etc.) they are trapped either in baited culvert traps or shot with tranquilizer darts. After being tagged, tattooed and sometimes fitted with a radio-collar, they receive "aversive conditioning." That is, upon waking up from sedation, they are subjected to pepper spray, the noise of air horns and/or shot with rubber buckshot from people. This is to teach them that "it is a bad thing to be around humans," according to Kim. In extreme cases (house break-ins, livestock kills) the animals are destroyed.

The Division works with farmers to minimize the effect that deer browsing can have on crops. Increasingly, farmers, and now even suburban homeowners, are putting up fences to surround their fields and properties to keep deer out.

Likewise, fencing is used to prevent beavers from setting up house in retention ponds and destroying trees with their incessant chewing. In some cases, such as in Newark's Pequannock Watershed in 2002 because of the drought and the threat beavers presented to water quality, beavers have to be trapped and removed. Unfortunately, trapped beavers are usually destroyed, said Kim, because there isn’t available habitat (suitable places that don’t already have beavers) to release them into.

The mild winters of recent years in NJ have resulted in a huge resident population (those that don’t migrate) of Canada geese . A hunting season that concentrates on taking resident Canada geese has been initiated to help control their numbers and minimize the damage they can cause.

Occasionally, Kim and her colleagues are faced with situations that result from people importing, buying and raising exotic species, as was the case with prairie dogs. Brought to NJ from the West, these animals were abandoned when the owner moved. The Division was called in when discovered by the new owners.

Kim concluded her program with a display of the tools she uses. They included a snake hook for handling snakes, a snare or capture pole (a loop extending out of a pole which tightens around the animal’s body allowing her to move it), a blow gun used to shoot tranquilizer darts at the smaller animals, and a tranquilizer rifle used to subdue larger animals, like bears.

Kim not only deepened our understanding of the hunting and eating habits of various wildlife but helped us gain new insights into the complex issues of wildlife management, a challenging and rewarding profession.

by Sandy Norman