John J. Cox

White-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginanus) are the most sought after game species in Kentucky. Deer numbers in southeast Kentucky are relatively low compared to other areas of the state, even after a decade of restrictive doe harvest and prior population supplementation. We estimated survival and assessed cause-specific mortality of a representative deer population in this low-density area within or near the Redbird District of the Daniel Boone National Forest in southeastern Kentucky from January 2014-January 2017. Estimated annual survival for does averaged 0.89 and was relatively high...

We assessed taxonomic status of wild canids in Kentucky using 13 cranial measurements on 143 known canid skulls in a multivariate statistical procedure to classify 56 unknown canid skulls from Kentucky. Discriminant function analyses revealed complete separation of canid taxa between coyotes and dogs, although coyote-dog hybrids had significant overlap with coyotes. Hybridization between coyotes and dogs in Kentucky occurred in less than 10% of unidentified canids. Our findings suggest that wild canids in Kentucky are best classified as coyotes, Canis latrans.