0 A. Alonso Aguirre Edward E. Starkey Donald E. Hansen 1995 Wildlife Society Bulletin 23 415-419 1995 management, wildlife health, disease, mammals, national parks Until 1991, the U.S. National Park Service (NPS) managed 337 areas covering some 32 million ha (79 million acres) in 50 states, the District of Columbia, Guam, Puerto Rico, and the Virgin Islands. Several additions, redesignations, and incorporations have occurred since then. The diversity of national parks is reflected in their titles, including national monuments, national preserves, national lakeshores, national seashores, national rivers, national recreation areas, and others. The role of wildlife disease in these protected ecosystems has received relatively little attention in the past, which is reflected in the limited discussion of disease in the Management Policies for the National Park System (NPS 1988). Diseases are mentioned briefly as part of exotic species and pest management. Diseases are discussed in more detail in the NPS's natural resources guidelines (NPS 1991).This discussion focuses on conditions which might justify control of diseases in native animal populations such as exotic disease, threat to human health, threat to relict species, as well as the control of arthropod disease vectors. Our information is derived from a mail questionnaire and an extensive literature review performed in 1990-1991. Individuals representing a total of 179 national parks, 123 state agencies, 103 federal agencies, and 98 colleges and universities responded to our questionnaire. The literature survey gathered information on diseases reported in wild mammals in national parks. Information also was gathered on zoonoses, domestic animal diseases, animal health programs, pack animals and pets in national parks, livestock grazing in park ecosystems, and policies and regulations on domestic animal management within parks. The literature review and survey results were published in a technical report (Aguirre et al. 1993), available from the Denver Service Center, Technical Information Center, P.O. Box 25287, Denver CO 80225. Although our survey design did not permit strong inferential uses, herein we highlight our findings and discuss potential problems and policy implications that may warrant more detailed scrutiny. Found online, pdf on computer, citation in NatureBibNatureBib ID: 651963