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

Texas kangaroo rat is believed to be declining and is a species of substantive conservation concern. To date, methods of assessing populations have been inconsistent and time intensive. However, the known reduction in the species distribution, and suspected population declines, there is an urgent need to develop a reliable, repeatable survey method based on detection probabilities. This will require innovation in approaches, but is foundational to developing a method that allows reliable estimates of population sizes and how they respond to management actions.

Through experimentation and field test trials, we will assess novel approaches to surveying for the Texas kangaroo rat. If successful, it will result in a new approach/method that will be suitable for nocturnal application, reliable, repeatable, and based on detection probabilities so that population abundances may be estimated. Developing such a method is incredibly important for assessing population trends and effectiveness of conservation efforts.