Life on the wild side
“I had to take the lymph nodes out of the first deer that came in. I cut across the front of the neck, back to the spine, tilted the head back, got a hold of the nodes with tweezers and ripped them out,” Dustin Lamoreaux said.
As a senior wildlife science major and president of the Wildlife Society Club, Lamoreaux has spent some time volunteering at Utah deer check stations, just one of the many things the WLS Club does.
The Wildlife Society Club is a student chapter of the national professional organization and has been around for 50 years, according to Lamoreaux.
The mission of the Wildlife Society, according to http://joomla.wildlife.org, is “to work to ensure that wildlife and their habitats are conserved through management actions that take into careful consideration relevant scientific information.”
Elizabeth Goss, senior conservation and restoration ecology major, said the group is committed to a world where humans and wildlife co-exist.
Even though the members come from diverse backgrounds, wildlife science major Carrie Jamieson said, “I think we can all agree on animal ethics: responsible stewardship, co-existing between man and animal even though I am the far end of the spectrum as a ‘bunny hugger.'”
So why the lymph node removal from the deer?
Frank Howe, faculty adviser for the club, said the state has voluntary check stations run by the Utah Division of Wildlife Resources to see how well the deer population is doing, “just like a human population, but we can’t do a census.”
“It shows how many deer are being harvested, how many hunters are successful harvesting deer and the age structure of the deer across the state,” Howe said.
Jason Carlisle, senior wildlife science major, said hunters bring the deer they’ve shot to the station where they measure the deer’s antlers, teeth-ware to figure the age, the fat of their brisket, which is an indicator of how healthy they are, and test for chronic wasting disease, also known as transmissible spongiform encephalopathy.
It took Howe five years to be able to say that “and now that I can say it, I must use it,” he said.
The lymph nodes are tested by the state for CWD, according to Carlisle.
“You put the lymph nodes in a little baggy and put a barcode on the bag and tear off a corresponding number for the hunter so they can find out later online if the deer they got was infected with the disease,” Carlisle said.
Lamoreaux said of his first removal experience, “Usually the deer is pretty bled out by the time they get it there. It was really cool. I got them on my first shot, so I was proud. It was definitely graphic though.”
In all seriousness, the disease, Lamoreaux said, is caused by a prion, which is an imitation of a protein, and it affects the nervous systems and degenerates the brain, like mad cow disease. So checking on the deer’s well-being is crucial.
Another service the club is doing for Utah is working on WOW, Wild Over Wood ducks, with the Utah Waterfowl Alliance, Bridgerland Audubon Society and Utah Division of Wildlife Resources. The project, according to Carlisle, chair of WOW, started last year with the purpose of increasing wood ducks in Cache Valley. The club helped place nest boxes around Cache Valley and will monitor the progress of the duck living there.
Jen Christopherson, junior resource management major, created a poster of the project for the student showcase of student research week at USU.
“We are in the first stages of working with the wood ducks, so we’ve set out boxes, nesting cavities for the ducks, because there are not a lot of places for them in Cache Valley,” Christopherson said.
Jamieson said, “We are figuring out the ideal nest box location (in a tree or on the ground) and material (wood or plastic).”
Ducks and deer aren’t the end of the list for this club.
Carlisle said, “We do academic competitions every year, called student conclaves. It is a wildlife quiz bowl, and is basically like wildlife Jeopardy on steroids.”
The national organization puts the event on, giving students a chance to network with professionals and show off what they’ve learned, according to Jamieson. The quiz bowl team consists of four persons. This year’s Western Conclave team was Carlisle, Lamoreaux, Jamieson and Justin Hicken, a sophomore in environmental studies. The four competed March 12-16 in Texas, taking third place.
The questions are not as easy as shooting a sitting duck. Lamoreaux said he was glad they didn’t receive one of the questions another team did: “Where do whooping cranes spend the winter?”
Jamieson, the conclave chair person, said the regional specific questions can be tough.
“They may ask you about circadian rhythm to specific mating patterns of a certain bird. It is like they cram four years worth of college into one quiz bowl,” Jamieson said.
Other questions, Lamoreaux said, are general concepts in genetics, ecology and biology. To prepare, a class was set up as a special project and the team met two days a week for a few hours as a study hall.
Despite the intense preparation, the conference is beneficial, according to Jamieson.
“It opens so many doors, it is not just a showing off of your knowledge, but it shows how the students are studying and the level of their studies,” Jamieson said. “Also, you learn about professionals, programs, make friends, summer jobs, internships and establish a first name basis with people you would have never met.”
A payoff for Craig Fackrell, senior in wildlife science and last year’s club president, was receiving a $1,500 scholarship from the Utah State Chapter of The Wildlife Society. It was awarded at the 2009 state TWS meeting, which was held at Bryce Canyon during the week of Spring Break.
Fackrell said he wrote a four-page essay on “the state of wildlife management in 2009.”
One of challenges for the club, according to Carlisle, is the stigmas.
“We embrace diversity, but it is hard to brave the stigma of being a ‘duck hunter’ or ‘gopher choker,'” he said.
Lamoreaux agreed, saying, “I enjoy hunting and tree-hugging. Just because I hunt doesn’t mean I don’t enjoy tree-hugging. I’m a multidimensional wildlifer.”
Carlisle said the group is working on breaking down the stigmas by being involved with the students. The club participates in the annual College of Natural Resources Week, and plans to be part of a service day on April 17 with other clubs.
“I think what is so great about this society is that even though we all come from different backgrounds, the society has so much variety. You can still come together because of one purpose,” Goss said.
Students interested in getting involved with the club can drop by the club office (NR112), e-mail nradvise@usu.edu, or call 435-797-1270.
– storee.powell@aggiemail.usu.edu