Other Life Sciences Commons^™

Population Dynamics Of The Louisiana Black Bear In The Upper Atchafalaya River Basin, Kaitlin Christine O'Connell

Masters Theses

The Louisiana black bear (Ursus americanus luteolus) is listed as Threatened under the Endangered Species Act as a result of habitat loss and human-related mortality. Two of the 3 sub-populations must be viable for delisting to occur. I collected hair samples from 2010 to 2012 in a DNA mark-recapture study to augment data collected from 2007 to 2009 in the Upper Atchafalaya River Basin (UARB) to estimate abundance (N), growth rate (λ), and apparent survival rates (φ) to ultimately be used in a population viability analysis. In addition, I evaluated the effects of the opening of the …

Rutting Behavior And Factors Influencing Vehicle Collisions Of White-Tailed Deer In Middle Tennessee, Peyton Seth Basinger

Masters Theses

White-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus; deer) and human populations have expanded, and as a result, deer-vehicle collisions (DVCs) have become a primary concern. In particular, Arnold Air Force Base (AAFB) in Tullahoma, Tennessee, USA has had extensive problems with DVCs and has struggled to incorporate effective mitigation strategies. To address this issue, I initiated a study on AAFB to investigate deer behavior and factors increasing the likelihood of DVCs.

DVCs typically increase with peaks in deer activity during the breeding season (rut). I deployed GPS-ARGOS satellite collars on 10 adult males and 10 females during the summer of 2010. …