In some sense, wildlife management is not new. Wildlife was managed for subsistence hunting—by burning fields to create grass for ungulates, for example—by early humans and even perhaps by protohumans. Game management—management of animals for sport hunting, in particular—has been traced at least as far back as ancient Egyptian civilizations. Large game fields, managed for sport, were maintained for the recreation of Egyptian royalty. Hunting restrictions—which can be thought of as the precursors of modern wildlife management—can be traced back to early tribal customs and taboos. Typically game management involved few species—mostly for food and sport, but also for aesthetics in some cases—and was practiced over relatively small areas in a decentralized manner.

Since the twentieth century, due mainly to a confluence of developments in ecology and society, game management has been supplemented by more comprehensive wildlife management...