Texas A&M University

TAMU Wildlife Program

The Department of Wildlife and Fisheries Sciences at Texas A&M University (TAMU) uses the latest in the ecological and management disciplines to provide the most diverse and progressive education available in the conservation of the earth’s biodiversity. Students in this department are interested in making contributions to solving problems associated with the extinction of species, wildlife recreational uses, food production from aquaculture, environmental education, and urban wildlife and fisheries recreational activities. Curricula in wildlife and fisheries sciences are designed to provide both the traditional and contemporary dimensions of academic instruction necessary to transform motivated and intellectually capable students into competent professionals. The program offers a bachelor’s degree in Wildlife and Fisheries Science, with three concentration areas: (1) Fisheries, Aquaculture, & Aquatic Sciences, (2) Wildlife Ecology & Conservation, or (3) Vertebrate Zoology, as well as Master’s and PhD options.

TAMU Boone and Crockett Professorship Program

TAMU welcomed Dr. Perry Barboza in 2015 as the new Boone and Crockett Chair in Wildlife Conservation and Policy. Perry was educated in Australia at University of New South Wales (BSc (Hon) in Zoology) and the University of New England (PhD in Nutrition). He has lived in the United States since 1989, when he joined the Smithsonian Institution in Washington DC as a postdoctoral fellow. Perry served on the faculty at University of Alaska Fairbanks for 18 years before joining TAMU. He works with students and colleagues to study how animals use the supply of food and water to meet the demands of living in an area. The laboratory group measures what foods animals use, how much food they use and how well they are able to survive and reproduce in an area. Perry’s research program attempts to better inform decisions about sustainably managing the landscape for wildlife and to help formulate policies to meet those management goals. The laboratory continues research with moose and caribou in Alaska, while initiating new projects on deer and bison in Texas and other “lower 48” states. They have also begun collaborative studies on state laws and policies for managing wildlife and their habitats.

TAMU Boone and Crockett Fellow

Dan Thompson is a Ph.D. student at Texas A&M University and a full time wildlife biologist with the Alaska Department of Fish and Game. Dan grew up in western Colorado and obtained a B.Sc. in wildlife biology from Colorado State University. He went to work as a wildlife biologist for the Natural Resources Conservation Service in Colorado, writing wildlife habitat plans, before moving to Alaska. Once in Alaska, Dan received a M.Sc. degree in wildlife biology from the University of Alaska, Fairbanks, researching caribou and reindeer nutrition. Currently, Dan works for the Alaska Department of Fish and Game, and conducts research on both captive moose at the Kenai Moose Research Center, and on wild moose on the Kenai Peninsula. His Ph.D. research evaluates how moose respond, both physiologically and behaviorally, to daily and seasonal fluctuations in environmental temperature on the Kenai Peninsula, Alaska. Thermoregulation and heat stress of moose has become a growing concern for southern populations of moose in Minnesota and elsewhere where summers are hot and populations are declining precipitously. Using internal temperature sensors in moose, Dan will look at daily and seasonal moose body temperature to determine when moose may become stressed from warm temperatures. Using captive moose, he will evaluate how individual moose respond to warm temperature using novel techniques such as heart rate belts, salivary stress hormone levels, and forward-looking infrared thermal images. Dan will use these physiological parameters to evaluate behavioral response of wild moose to temperature, using GPS collars to determine habitat selection. This research will define suitable habitat to sustain moose production while managing for fire, forestry and harvest.