Deer Lab
Our current understanding of the biology and behavior of White-tailed deer is largely based upon research of free-ranging deer and captive deer housed in relatively small pens. While studies conducted under these conditions have supplied a wealth of information, these research environments simply do not provide outlets to answer many of the current questions that must be addressed in order to further our knowledge. For example, researchers have long been interested in factors that influence a buck’s reproductive success, such as antler size, physical size and age; however, complex herd dynamics make it extremely difficult to answer questions related to breeding success in free-ranging populations and the behavior of deer in small enclosures is too altered to even approach these issues. Additionally, much of our understanding of deer is based upon studies conducted over relatively short periods of time, providing only brief “snapshots” of a given population. The relevance of results, consequently, often are limited to a particular population during a given study period which confounds large scale utility of findings.
Our team of researchers has constructed the Auburn University Deer Lab in an effort to answer the difficult questions related to deer research and management that cannot be addressed in conventional study areas. Our goal for the lab is to develop a unique research environment where we have the ability to gain intimate knowledge of each individual in the herd throughout their entire life while also maintaining “natural” behavior. The “middle ground” between free- ranging and captive populations provided by the lab will allow us to gather extensive long term data and will yield invaluable new insight to the biology and behavior of deer.