Doctoral Candidate

STUDENT BACKGROUND

I am a native Tennessean who grew up camping and hiking in the foothills of the Appalachian Mountains of middle and east Tennessee.  My undergraduate degree in Wildlife and Fisheries Science is from Tennessee Technological University in Cookeville, TN.   From TTU, I traveled to Auburn University to pursue a master’s in Wildlife Science.  My thesis title was Nutritive quality of eastern gamagrass, big bluestem, and highbush blackberry exposed to tropospheric ozone.  I examined how a ground-level pollutant could affect the nutrition of plants important to herbivores, like white-tailed deer, in the southeast.  I have a strong ecological background and have come to south Texas to learn how intense management works on private lands.  I am a member of the Quality Deer Management Association and the Texas Chapter of The Wildlife Society.  I have presented talks at state and national Wildlife Society meetings and given presentations for the Southeastern Deer Study Group, CKWRI advisory board, and the Texas White-tailed Deer Advisory Board based on our research.

DISSERTATION PROJECT

Factors Influencing Antler Size in Free-Ranging White-tailed Deer and Mark Recapture Estimates of Demographic Traits

My dissertation project is to continue the South Texas Buck Capture Project through October of 2007 and analyze 10 years worth of data collected in conjunction with this project. Bucks captured during this project have been scored using the Boone and Crockett scoring system, aged by both tooth replacement and wear and by body configuration, and measured for girth, chest circumference, body length and hind foot length.  By using this data set, I hope to answer questions about deer management in South Texas by examining trends in antler growth and development.  Specifically, I hope to determine if spike-antlered yearlings grow antlers comparable to their forked-antlered counterparts at later ages and at what point antler growth is maximized in free-ranging populations of white-tailed deer.  Both of these questions have real value to wildlife managers who are trying to maximize production of trophy bucks on their land.  Additionally, we are using known-age jawbones from harvested deer to develop better aging criteria for deer in South Texas.