Christopher S. DePerno

Hunting pressure can lead to drastic changes in white-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus) behavior, though previous studies have focused mainly on females and juvenile males. Adult male white-tailed deer have not been studied in the context of hunting pressure since the advent of GPS technology. During 2006-2007, we deployed GPS collars on nine adult (≥2.5 years old) male white-tailed deer to examine changes in home range (95% fixed kernel) and core area (50% fixed kernel) size, shifts in home range and core area, movement, activity, and vulnerability to harvest during Maryland's two-week...

Wildlife-related fee access can provide supplemental income to private landowners, potentially protecting wildlife habitat by keeping land undeveloped. We surveyed 1,368 private landowners in North Carolina to determine the factors influencing whether they leased land to hunters or were interested in offering leases for other types of wildlife related recreation. Five percent of landowners allowed access for fee hunting. Twenty-eight percent of landowners provided access to their property for wildlife related activities, but <1% of these landowners earned income from it. Ten and 16...

Catch-per-unit-effort (CPUE) is a useful index of population density that is often applied to harvested populations. Because CPUE is an economical index and data collection is simple, we wanted to enhance the user-friendliness and accessibility of a tool for tracking deer population abundance by recoding an existing FORTRAN estimator to JMP scripting language (JSL). Using the revised CPUE-JMP method, we estimated an antlered white-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus) population on Chesapeake Farms, Maryland, from 1981-2006 to compare the performance of CPUE techniques in a short (one-...

The white-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus) population on Bald Head Island has increased, threatening a unique maritime forest in southeastern North Carolina. Bald Head Island is ~620 ha and is characterized by live oak (Quercus virginiana) maritime forest, dunes, tidal marsh, and urban development. Preservation of maritime forest is important for barrier island conservation. Maritime forests are important coastal habitats that are under significant threat from development, and in the absence of reproductive controls, white-tailed deer can negatively impact ecosystems through over-...

Hunting has shaped the history of wildlife conservation, but research exploring the relationship between hunting and conservation is new. A decline in the popularity of hunting has spurred research on hunting participation and recruitment, but less is known about how hunting influences societal negotiation of the appropriate roles for humans and wildlife. We addressed this need with a personally administered survey to 320 college students at North Carolina State University (NCSU). The survey sampled 17 courses in eight of the nine colleges at NCSU with 100% compliance rate. Hunters...