Endowed Chair for Quail Research

Research Scientist

Lenny Brennan is a Professor in the Department of Animal and Wildlife Sciences and holds the Endowed Chair in the Richard M. Kleberg Jr. Center for Quail Research. A native of Connecticut, he developed a deep appreciation of the outdoors and ecology as a young boy when he lived camped and hiked in various parts of New England.  Lenny graduated from The Evergreen State College in Olympia, Washington (1981) with a B.S. in Environmental Studies, Humboldt State University in Arcata, California (1984) with a M.S. in Natural Resources-Wildlife Management, and from The University of California-Berkeley (1989) with a Ph.D. in Wildland Resource Sciences-Wildlife Ecology where he was also a Regents’ Fellow.

Lenny became a Research Scientist in the Department of Wildlife and Fisheries at Mississippi State University in 1989, and then moved on to become Director of Research at Tall Timbers Research Station in Tallahassee, Florida in 1993. During 2001 he moved to South Texas to assume his current position at the Caesar Kelberg Wildlife Research Institute. Lenny’s primary research interests pertain to habitat and population ecology of wild quail in Texas; he is conducting specific research projects on impacts of exotic grasses, various brush control and grassland habitat restoration techniques, relationships between habitat structure and population productivity, understanding the predator context in which quail nest in South Texas, as well as the genetic ecology of bobwhites across the Texas landscape.

The author of over 100 scientific articles, and more than 65 extension publications, Lenny has published the results of his research projects in various international journals such as Oecolgia, Giber-Faune Sauvage, The Condor, The Auk, Environmental Monitoring and Assessment, and  The Journal of Wildlife Management. He is the author of the Northern Bobwhite Species Account in the acclaimed Birds of North America series, and he has edited three books, including the forthcoming Texas Quails: Ecology and Management, to be published by Texas A&M University Press in 2007.  Lenny and his graduate students have presented greater than 85 papers at various scientific conferences, and he has made more than 90 presentations to extension audiences.

During 2001-2002, Lenny served as Editor-in-Chief of The Journal of Wildlife Management, and has also served terms as Associate Editor for The Journal of Wildlife Management,  The Wildlife Society Bulletin, and Consulting Editor for Wildlife Monographs.  Lenny received the Senior Faculty Distinguished Teaching Award in the College of Agriculture, Human Sciences and Natural Resources in 2005.