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

Staff Member

James W Pitman

James Pitman with elk calf in Gila National Forest, New Mexico
Master's
Email: jwpitman@nmsu.edu

Biography

I am originally from Louisiana. I received a B.S. in Wildlife Conservation from Louisiana Tech University. While working on my bachelor's degree, I completed several internships working with Northern bobwhites and grassland habitats in Mississippi and Oklahoma. . Upon graduation, I worked in Wyoming, and worked on sage grouse and raptors and as a technician on elk and wolf ecology projects in Wyoming and Alberta. I am currently working on a M.S. degree in Wildlife Sciences at New Mexico State University in the research program of Dr. James Cain. My thesis project focuses on the microhabitat selection of elk calves in the Blue Range Mexican Gray Wolf Recovery Area.

Research Publications Publication Date
Tatman, N.M., S.G. Liley, J.W. Cain III, and J.W. Pitman. 2018. Effects of nutrition and calf predation on elk vital rates in New Mexico. Journal of Wildlife Management 82:1417–1428. | Download August 2018
Pitman, J.W., J.W. Cain III, W.R. Gould, N.T. Tatman, and S.G. Liley. 2024. Habitat selection and survival of elk neonates. Southwestern Naturalist 67:205–215. | Download September 2023
Project Completion Date
Elk calf survival and cause-specific mortality in the Blue Range Wolf Recovery Area June 2013
Presentations Presentation Date
Pitman, J.W., J.W. Cain III, S.G. Liley, W.R. Gould, and N.M. Quintana. 2013. Microhabitat selection and mortality site characteristics of elk calves in areas of differing predator composition in New Mexico. 46th Joint Annual Meeting of the Arizona/New Mexico Chapters of The Wildlife Society, Albuquerque, New Mexico, USA. February 2013
Pitman, J.W., J.W. Cain III, S.G. Liley, W.R. Gould, and N.M. Quintana. 2012. Micro-habitat selection and mortality site characteristics of elk calves in the Blue Range Wolf Recovery Area of west-central New Mexico. 19th Annual Conference of The Wildlife Society, Portland, Oregon, USA. October 2012