Friday, October 30, 2009
Spotlights dance across the fields and woods on the outskirts of Lawrence, coming from a truck that has slowed to a stop. The brake lights shine through the gravel dust as the spotlights reach an agreement. In the camouflage of high grass, the illuminated space seems to have no secrets until the glow of two eyes acknowledges its visitors. The white-tailed doe stands to present herself. A moment passes before she cocks her head and prances away. Then the high beams return to the dance floor as deer spotting resumes.
The students in Bob Hagen’s field ecology course have teamed up with the Kansas Department of Wildlife and Parks and Lloyd Fox, big game coordinator, to perform the annual deer census. Over three days, these environmental studies students get hands-on experience in order to better understand what goes on in the field.
Marc Kingston, Leawood senior, searches for deer in fields north of K-10 Wednesday as part of an environmental studies class. The class assisted the Kansas Department of Wildlife and Parks in the annual deer census, which gives researchers data to estimate the region’s deer population.
“The basic essence of education is doing it instead of just me lecturing the facts,” Hagen said. “It’s combining those facts with the knowledge gained through active learning. Let’s find out what’s really happening.”
A towering metal structure in the bed of Fox’s pickup looks out of place until two students hike themselves onto the platform. Armed with spotlights, they are able to spot more deer from a higher perspective before recording information such as gender, age, location and number of deer, as well as the physical characteristics of the environment.
“Now we’re in the game, like, ‘Where are they, those little, creepy, glowing green eyes?’” Marc Kingston, Leawood senior, said. “I could sit up there all night. It’s a great opportunity to apply the field ecology learning methods of scientific experiments. You get a better understanding of it with a hands-on approach.”
During the early 20th century, the abundant deer population was completely eliminated from Kansas, Hagen said, which led to a new conservation ethic for preserving wildlife in the 21st century. The idea was to have hunters replace the predators in order to manage and sustain the deer population. The census provides the information to make this possible.
“We follow the trend on deer population and use that to decide the length of the season and number of (hunting) permits to issue,” Fox said. “We try to balance the number of deer with the public’s desire for them.”
Hagen prepared his students for deer spotting with a milk jug challenge — milk jugs were placed at random in a grassy field for his students to spot.
“There were some intentionally hidden really well,” Lydia Gibson, Prairie Village senior, said. “It taught us that we’re not going to see every single deer and that’s okay. You don’t need to know the real number of the population.”
Since the census was created in 2002, deer spotting has not become any easier. Blinking eyes could turn out to be grass waving in front of a reflector. A deer imitating the fence could actually be the fence. And accepting the fact that deer aren’t willing to stand there and be counted is another lesson learned from this particularly enjoyable experience.
For the past two years, University students have worked on the census with Fox. He said he enjoys having them around.
“It’s good for me to get back with these types of humans,” Fox joked. “They keep me young and entertained.”
— Edited by Samantha Foster
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