Caesar Kleberg News

TEXAS A&M UNIVERSITY-KINGSVILLE

A Model of Applied Research

Article by DAVE HEWITT, CHARLIE DEYOUNG, TIM FULBRIGHT and DON DRAEGER

Tim Fulbright and CWKRI graduate students take detailed measurements of shrubs, some protected from deer browsing by fences, to determine the effect of deer foraging on vegetation.

In 2003, Dan Friedkin and Donnie Draeger approached Charlie DeYoung with an idea of studying two key questions they had about deer management on the Comanche Ranch near Carrizo Springs. The first question was: “What is the deer density that results in the largest number of trophy bucks without damaging the habitat?” The second was: “What is the effect of supplemental food on productivity of deer and on the habitat?

These two questions are relevant to every deer management program in Texas. These questions also delve deep into the basic ecology of wildlife populations, foraging ecology and the relationship between deer and plants. This research agenda was both simple and complex, exciting and daunting.

A hallmark of great science is replicating the study, which means doing the study more than once to determine if the results are repeatable and applicable to more than one place. To meet this goal, Friedkin, Draeger and DeYoung approached Stuart Stedman who understood the value of making the study repeatable and enthusiastically offered the Faith Ranch as a second study site. With this step, the

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Comanche-Faith Deer Research Project was born.

This project was a massive effort that involved 2,400 acres divided into 12, 200-acre high-fenced enclosures, housing for research personnel at each study site, a half-dozen pick-up trucks, more than 25 graduate students, more than 30 undergraduate research techs, dozens of volunteers, three faculty, and unflagging, on-the-ground support from the Comanche and Faith ranches.

In addition to these unprecedented resources, this project lasted 14 years, which is much longer than most research projects. Fourteen years ensured the study encompassed a mix of wet and dry years and allowed time for deer foraging to influence vegetation. The project occurred in two phases. The first phase was nine years and focused on the effect of deer density on the vegetation and on the deer themselves. The first phase also studied deer and vegetation relationships in the presence of supplemental feed.

The second phase lasted five years and dealt with the effect of even greater deer densities, all in the presence of supplemental feed. The second phase also investigated the effect of increasing the number of feed sites as deer density increased to reduce competition among deer for feed.

In addition to answering our original questions, this research project uncovered a multitude of other facts and relationships beyond the original objectives. For example, we showed that native habitat for deer in southwest Texas can support healthy deer populations and can grow large bucks but does not meet all the deer’s nutritional needs. Providing supplemental feed improved deer nutrition and increased fawn production, deer survival, body size and antler size. We demonstrated that even in the presence of supplemental feed, fawn production and antler size are greater during wet years than dry years, suggesting that diverse and healthy native habitat is important even if supplemental feed is available.

We showed that deer eat a lot of fruits and pods during summer and autumn, which is only possible with a wide variety of plants to produce these foods. We

The effects of deer foraging were studied intensively to understand the interrelationships between deer and the vegetation on which they rely.

Kory Gann, a CKWRI graduate student at the time, records bites taken by a habituated deer that lived in the research enclosures permanently.

Results from this research project show that nutrition is limiting for deer in South Texas and that if you improve nutrition and allow bucks to get old, the average antler size of bucks will increase and a few top-end bucks will emerge. discovered that deer are creative and flexible in meeting their nutritional needs in the highly variable South Texas brush. Deer eat blackbrush flowers and fungus on twisted acacia during spring, snail shells and mouse skeletons for minerals during summer, and a wide variety of browse species during the autumn and winter.

We found that in good nutritional conditions, young females become pregnant and produce fawns but that these young mothers rarely raise their fawns. Nearly all the fawns produced come from mature does.

The project resulted in more than 100 research presentations at state, regional, national and international meetings. It produced several scientific publications and a wildlife monograph. It enabled 26 graduate students to learn about deer ecology and management and to earn master’s and doctoral degrees.

These outcomes are all academic. What products directly benefitted deer management and wildlife conservation?

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First, we presented study results to deer managers at various landowner meetings over the last 15 years. We wrote a book that will be published next year by Texas A&M University Press specifically for deer managers summarizing the project’s findings.

All those graduate students who worked on the project went out into the world. They are ranch managers, biologists for Texas Parks and Wildlife Department, and employees for natural resource agencies across the country. Our research team is most proud of these products because they directly benefit deer management and wildlife conservation on the ground.

We share this story with you because we feel the Comanche-Faith Research Project is an excellent example of what the Caesar Kleberg Wildlife Research Institute seeks to accomplish. The project used a sound research approach to address management questions and provided information for land stewards and wildlife biologists to meet their management goals. The research was worthy of publication in top research journals and helped answer important ecological questions.

Finally, the project provided training for a huge number of graduate and undergraduate students who now understand the complexities of whitetailed deer ecology and management. These students also appreciate the passion of private landowners for wildlife conservation and know the privilege of working on private property.

Long-term, large-scale research with large animals like deer is expensive. The lion’s share of funding for this project came from T. Dan Friedkin, Comanche Ranch, Stedman West Foundation and the Faith Ranch. Other contributors over the years were the Rene Barrientos Tuition Enhancement Fund, Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo, the San Antonio Livestock Exposition, the US Environmental Protection Agency, the Stedman Chair for White-tailed Deer Research, and the Meadows Professorship for Semiarid Land Ecology. We thank these funding sources for their foresight in supporting applied wildlife research.