Proceedings of the Vertebrate Pest Conference

Requests for assistance, monetary losses attributed to wildlife, and numbers of wild animals removed from urban areas in California increased significantly between 1982 and 1989. Five species of wildlife are responsible for the majority of complaints received from the public. Because of the inherent problems associated with animal damage control in densely populated urban areas, specialized control equipment and techniques such as cage traps, crossbows and night vision goggles are utilized by U.S. Department of Agriculture, Animal Plant Health Inspection Service, Animal Damage Control (USDA-APHIS-ADC) personnel. Urban ADC programs help educate a large segment of the population about the need for occasional control of problem wildlife.