Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Research Units Program: New Mexico
Education, Research and Technical Assistance for Managing Our Natural Resources

New Mexico Project


Assessment of nutrition and predation as limiting factors for mule deer in New Mexico

December 2014 - December 2018


Personnel

Participating Agencies

  • New Mexico Department of Game and Fish
  • New Mexico Agricultural Experiment Station

The goal of this project is to determine which factors are effectively limiting mule deer in New Mexico. Our specific objectives are to:1) estimate mule deer survival rates and determine cause-specific mortality; 2) determine mule deer pregnancy rates and fawn recruitment; 3) assess the nutritional status of mule deer by determining the quantity (i.e., biomass of available forage) and quality (nutritional content) of forage available to mule deer within the study area; 4) determine diet composition and diet quality for mule deer; 5)estimate prey composition and kill rates for mountain lions; and 6)determine how habitat selection by mule deer is influenced by habitat conditions and predation risk by mountain lions.

Presentations Presentation Date
Kay, J. H., and J. W. Cain III. 2016. Top-Down and bottom-up forces on central New Mexico mule deer. 49th Joint Annual Meeting of the Arizona/New Mexico Chapters of The Wildlife Society, Flagstaff, Arizona, USA. February 2016
Kay, J.H., and J.W. Cain III. 2017. Effects of sampling time on bone marrow fat estimates. 24th Annual Conference of the Wildlife Society, Albuquerque, New Mexico, USA. September 2017
Kay, J.H., and J.W. Cain III. 2017. New insight into utilizing bone marrow to assess the health of mountain lion prey . 12th Mountain Lion Workshop, Estes Park, Colorado, USA. May 2017
Kay, J.H., and J.W. Cain III. 2017. New insight into utilizing bone marrow to assess ungulate health. 12th Western States and Provinces Deer and Elk Workshop, Sun Valley, Idaho, USA. May 2017
Kay, J.H., and J.W. Cain III. 2017. New insight into utilizing bone marrow to assess ungulate health. 50th Joint Annual Meeting of the Arizona/New Mexico Chapters of The Wildlife Society, Farmington, New Mexico, USA. February 2017
Kay, J.H., J.W. Cain III, and S.G. Liley. 2018. Tradeoffs between forage and predation risk in central New Mexico. International Deer Biology Congress, Estes Park, Colorado, USA. August 2018
Theses and Dissertations Publication Date
Kay, J.H. 2018. Top-down and bottom up influences on mule deer in central New Mexico. M.S. Thesis. Department of Fish, Wildlife and Conservation Ecology, New Mexico State University, Las Cruces. 186 pp. November 2018