A hand positions a GPS collar on a mule deer neck. The mule deer is laying on a yellow mat, and her collar has a tag that is blue and inscribed with the numbers "74."

Ongoing research

From bighorn sheep in the Sierras of California to mule deer in central Wyoming, we study what makes ungulates and their populations tick.

Each one of our projects is a little different, but we tend to have common themes throughout most of our projects: nutritional ecology, an individual focus, and long-term data. By studying nutritional ecology, we can learn how habitat and other environmental factors influence individuals, and then understand how individuals come together to make up a whole population. By looking at individuals and populations over many years, we start to get a a better sense of what is driving populations.

Check out some of our projects below to see what we’ve been up to!

Bighorn Sheep Nutrition Disease Project

Sierra Nevada Bighorn Sheep Recovery Program Research Project

Wyoming Range Mule Deer Project

A bighorn sheep ewe is laying down in short alpine plants. She has closed her eyes just slightly and is leaning against a lamb. The lamb is facing away from the camera, with a hesitant look on its face.
Photo credit: Tayler LaSharr
A person sits, wearing a backpack and looking through binoculars from the top of a rocky mountain: below, rocky slopes, forest, and a lake are shown.
Photo credit: Jaron Kolek
A mule deer buck with large antlers (4 points on each side) and a thick neck stands in chest-high sagebrush, looking directly at the camera. The buck is wearing a GPS collar around his neck. The buck’s coat matches the colors of the sagebrush.
Photo credit: Ben Regan

Casper Mule Deer Project

A mule deer in her summer coat walks up a hill covered in red soil. There are a few juniper trees and patches of short shrubs, but otherwise the landscape is mostly soil. She is wearing a GPS collar, and appears to be glancing at the camera out of the side of her eye.
Photo credit: Rhiannon Jakopak