The Largest Whitetail Culling Study Ever Conducted

Randy DeYoung (0:00)

What tends to happen in the real world is sometimes bucks are pretty good one year, and then they're not the next year.

So he was a trophy last year, but he's not this year, this year he gets called. And the longer they live, the more likely they are to have one bad year and get removed.

Jacob Dykes (0:19)

Welcome to Deer University, the podcast of the Mississippi State University Deer Lab. I'm Jacob Dykes.

Eric Michel (0:25)

And I'm Eric Michel, and we're the co-directors of the MSU Deer Lab.

Jacob Dykes (0:29)

As hunters, deer biologists, and wildlife professors, we're passionate about bridging the gap between research and management.

Eric Michel (0:36)

Each episode, we explore the latest deer research from around the country, breaking it down to discuss how it can improve wildlife and habitat management on your land.

Jacob Dykes (0:45)

Whether you're a hunter, a land steward, or simply interested in deer biology, Deer University is for you.

All right, guys, we got a good one today. We've got a friend, colleague and a mentor of mine, Dr. Randy DeYoung. Randy, welcome.

Randy DeYoung (1:02)

Thanks, Jacob. Good to be with you guys.

Jacob Dykes (1:06)

Yeah, we've been excited about this one. Not just catching up with you, learning from you, but also this project that we're going to be talking about today. Absolutely massive, gain-changing type project.

And it's going to be really, really neat to discuss those things. But one thing I'd love to do first off, Randy, if you wouldn't mind just telling us. I know you've been on here before. People know who you are. But if you wouldn't mind, maybe we've got to pick up an extra listener or two every month or so. So if you wouldn't mind just giving us rundown, who you are, where you're from, that kind of stuff.

Randy DeYoung (1:38)

I'm a research scientist and professor at the Caesar Kleberg Wildlife Research Institute. That's at a university in the Texas A&M system. So we're Texas A&M at Kingsville. And so we're a privately supported research group that's embedded within the university. So that means that the institute scientists, we all have teaching appointments and things like that. But most of our time is dedicated to research.

And we research wildlife in the Texas region and beyond. And so things that are important to both game and non-game management. That's usually the type of things that we're into.

Jacob Dykes (2:19)

Yeah, and we've talked about the program quite a few times. Maybe people will connect the dots on this, but I always talk about my time in South Texas. Well, Randy, you were my major advisor during my PhD down at CKWRI.

Randy DeYoung (2:33)

And you turned out okay in spite of all that.

Jacob Dykes (2:35)

So far, so far, yeah. So far.

But yeah, excellent program down there. Y'all are doing really, really cool stuff, constantly.

Randy DeYoung (2:45)

Yeah, we're really applied, kind of like the program in Mississippi State and a couple of the other ones in the region. It's getting to be there's not that many that are that are still kind of hands on applied type of things. But that's really always been our thing, doing things that are relevant to managers and landowners. And we try to crack out some students that are be really good prospects for state agencies and federal agencies and so on.

So yeah, that's really our focus.

Jacob Dykes (3:16)

Absolutely. And that's a focus of Eric's and mine as well.

How can we move the native on the ground? That's what we're trying to do. And you're right, unfortunately, that is becoming more rare. So programs like CKRI and the work that you do, and it's becoming more and more important. And I know that that's going to resonate with our listeners as well. So we're excited to get you on and talk about some of the research you've done and how that influences management.

Randy DeYoung (3:46)

Yeah, glad to be here.

Jacob Dykes (3:48)

And so today, we are talking about culling.

That's a word that I think a lot of people are going to hear and perk up and say, oh, we're talking about culling again. Well, this particular project, y'all looked at how selective our harvest affected antler size of whitetail down in Texas, right? And huge question, a topic with huge amount of interest, me included. But could you tell us a little bit about what sparked this project? What kind of aside from the people being interested in it, like what decided or what made you decide to take on such a large project?

Randy DeYoung (4:26)

Yeah, well, I think you hit the nail on the head. It's kind of interest and curiosity was a big part of it. You know, so when we think about kind of, I guess, clarify what we're talking about. So culling would be taking out, you know, undesirable or small antler deer. And was really with the goal of that should or could improve the population, you know, better get the bad genetics out and good genetics in, give them more chances over time. You know, we might, you know, improve things. And, you know, I think that's something that, you know, I mean, anybody that's been around livestock or dogs or pets or whatever, you kind of know that, well, selection, yeah, that makes a big difference in certain cases. And as, you know, we started getting into, you know, managing more for wildlife during the 1970s and really took off in the 1980s and 90s. You know, people were looking at, hey, look what the captive industry has done is, can we do something similar to that in wild populations? Or at least maybe high fence wild populations, you know, what's the, what can be achieved? What are the limits kind of things here? And kind of, I guess, kind of about that same time, there was a lot of research, you know, into genetic components of antler size. You know, some of it done at Mississippi State with Harry Jacobson, and in collaboration with Steve Lukfar, who's a quantitative geneticist that was actually based here in Kingsville. And then also our state agency had done a lot of work in captive deer. And, you know, based on that, you know, some of the, you know, yeah, antlers are genetically influenced, and you know, that those characteristics can be inherited. So that really led a lot of people to, you know, really wondering and practicing that, okay, yeah, it seems logical that we get the small ones out, that we'll have more big ones in the end. And so the initial part of the study was done is essentially kind of a field demonstration, like a large scale demonstration of this idea on the King Ranch. So the King Ranch was able to, you know, set aside, you know, a couple of, you know, eight or 9,000 acre, you know, low-fenced. So in other words, just livestock-fenced pastures that they didn't have and is part of their leasing program. And so, you know, King Ranch is one of the largest working ranches in the US. And they have, you know, a livestock business, but they also derive a lot of income, mostly from leasing, hunting rights, but also have a small commercial hunting program, too. And so they said, yeah, let's take a look at this and see if it makes sense for us to do it. And so, Cleberg Institute, King Ranch, Antwerp Parks and Wildlife started this in the late 1990s. That was about the time that I came to Mississippi State for my Ph.D. But they were doing deer capture, so they're catching deer with a helicopter and net gun, measuring them, you know, putting some permanent markings in their kind of a macrochip tag. We call it a pit tag, something you could scan, you know, not be a physical tag that might influence your harvest decision. And then they went out just using hunters for several years and tried to, you know, had one of those sites that they applied a lot of heavy harvest of, you know, in all age classes, depending on their antler size, taking out the smallest ones. And then on the other side, they just kind of let it alone more or less. And at the end of, I forget how many years that was, five, six plus years of that kind of culling effort, you know, doing deer captures every year between that and kind of comparing, there really wasn't any difference in the antler size between those two. And, you know, kind of at the end of that, you know, there was a lot of, well, you know, these aren't high-fenced and it's like, well, yeah, that's true. We all knew that going in. And, well, you know, there's a lot of other problems potentially. It's like, well, again, everybody knew that going in.