Author: Jesse Morrison       Major: Biological Engineering 

Demonstrating the use of spotlights and laser rangefinders before a survey.

My name is Jesse Morrison. I am a biological engineering student at the University of Arkansas College of Engineering. During the Spring of 2021, I completed an honors project with the assistance of my mentor Dr. Brian Haggard of the biological engineering department. After completing this project, I am planning to intern with a solar energy company in Spain and after that I hope to join the Peace Corps.

For my honors project, I analyzed trends in the number of deer sightings at Hobbs State Park, introduced a distance sampling method, and estimated the park’s deer population. The distance sampling surveys involved travelling through the park with volunteers in trucks and counting deer as well as measuring the distance to deer using a laser rangefinder. The relationship between the number of deer spotted and the distance to each deer was used to estimate the density of deer in the park’s roadside habitat. Monitoring deer populations is important since deer play a vital role in the ecosystem and their absence can lead to imbalance and lack of plant biodiversity in an ecosystem. Deer overpopulation is also problematic as this can lead to overgrazing, starvation, increased deer-vehicle collisions, and the spread of disease.

I chose this topic because during my freshman year I participated in a deer spotlight survey at Hobbs State Park. I also helped the park to catch songbirds in nets for a presentation on local bird species. These were fun and interesting experiences to me, and I have always been interested in the outdoors and wildlife. Whenever I was trying to find a project, I called the park to see if they had any projects that they needed help with. It took a while to hear back from the park and, in the meantime, I started looking at a different project with Dr. Brian Haggard. Eventually the park contacted me and told me that they were interested in estimating their white-tailed deer population from the survey data they collected in the past. I decided that since this project at the park fit my interests very well, I would take it on instead of starting the other project. Dr. Haggard agreed to continue as my mentor for this new deer population estimation project.

My first major challenge was learning about wildlife population studies and data analysis. Eventually, I realized that more data was needed for a population estimate, so I suggested completing a new survey using distance sampling. Dr. Haggard got me in touch with a wildlife biologist named Dr. Don White from UA Monticello and he agreed that distance sampling could be a good approach. He also told me about some of the limitations and potential biases of doing a roadside survey. I learned that population estimates are very complicated and much more difficult than simply counting deer.

My next major challenge was organizing a new survey. I originally hoped to do a new survey in Fall 2020 but due to the COVID19 situation, this was not possible. In 2021, I worked with Dr. White and the park employees to design a survey and find volunteers to count deer. Many of the surveys were canceled due to weather and it was a challenge to schedule five survey nights. Some UA students assisted me by volunteering to count deer on the surveys.

After completing the survey and analyzing my data, I estimated that the roadside habitat in the park had a deer population density of 8.5 deer per square kilometer. I used this density to estimate that there are approximately 414 deer in the park. This estimate is affected by the inherent bias of roadside surveys but the methods introduced and the information gathered could be a useful tool for future deer management in the park.

I was selected to present my project at the virtual posters at the capitol event. My next plans are to complete an internship over the summer and join the Peace Corps. I interviewed for an agricultural extension position in Madagascar, and I hope that I am able to take part in this experience soon.