The Deer Ecology and Management Lab at Mississippi State University

The deer research program at Mississippi State University began with the arrival of Dr. Dave Guynn and Dr. Harry Jacobson in the mid-1970s. The synergism between these two young research biologists spawned many unique projects that generated national attention. Guynn left for other employment, and Dr. Jacobson expanded the breadth of deer research projects over a storied 20-year fulltime career, followed by continued interaction as Professor Emeritus. Jacobson’s position was filled by Dr. Steve Demarais, who earned his doctoral degree with Harry and subsequently worked as a deer specialist in Texas. After training at the Caesar Kleberg Wildlife Research Institute in Texas, Dr. Bronson Strickland contributed to the deer research program as a research associate for six years and joined the faculty of the Department of Wildlife, Fisheries and Aquaculture in 2006. Dr. Jerry Belant, a renowned carnivore and deer specialist with extensive experience in northern regions, joined the department in 2008. Collectively, and working with numerous graduate students, cooperating agencies, foundations, and landowners, these five faculty have established the Deer Ecology and Management Lab at Mississippi State University as one of the premier deer management research units in the United States.

A partial list of our accomplishments includes:

• Developed the first Deer Management Assistance Program (DMAP) in cooperation with Mississippi Department of Wildlife, Fisheries and Parks. This landowner assistance program has been widely emulated across the South with deer management input on millions of acres.
• The first to document population-level impacts of unbalanced adult sex ratio, including delayed breeding of females.
• Developed the Spring Herd Health Check program in cooperation with Mississippi Department of Wildlife, Fisheries and Parks.
• Documented the effects of late fawning on antler development of yearling bucks.
• Participated in the formalization of Quality Deer Management concepts.
• Documented male mortality rates associated with the Quality Deer Management approach.
• First to artificially inseminate female deer with semen collected from hunter-harvested bucks.
• One of only two research-based estimates of antler trait heritability for white-tailed deer.
• First to document multiple paternity in white-tailed deer (two bucks sire fawns by same dam).
• First to document breeding success of bucks in wild deer populations and how dominance affects breeding success in pens.
• Documented the genetic impacts of deer restoration during the 1940s-1960s on the current deer population in Mississippi.
• Quantified the effects of various pine plantation management alternatives on nutritional carrying capacity for white-tailed deer.
• Quantified factors affecting regional variation in body and antler size of white-tailed deer.
• Leaders in studying effects of antler-based selective harvest on deer populations.
• Learned how land use patterns affect antler and body size of deer.
• Developed software technology to estimate age and antler size of deer from photographs.

Our research cooperators and funding sources include:

• Mississippi Department of Wildlife, Fisheries, and Parks
• Federal Aid in Wildlife Restoration, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
• Samuel Roberts Noble Foundation
• National Council for Air and Stream Improvements
• Caesar Kleberg Wildlife Research Institute
• Kentucky Department of Fish and Wildlife Resources
• Michigan Department of Natural Resources
• Missouri Department of Conservation