Brian L. Spears
M.S., Texas Tech University, 2002
Hello! My name is Brian Spears. I am a recent M.S. graduate from Texas Tech University, with a degree in wildlife science. My involvement with Texas Tech allowed me to participate in one of the largest wild turkey research projects ever conducted in North America. During my time at Tech, the project consisted of two years of research at 4 separate sites across the high plains of Texas and southwest Kansas. Approximately 20,000 individual adult turkey locations were recorded, along with habitat measurements, individual poult locations, and many other observations.
For my part of the study, I chose to focus on relationships between habitat parameters in wild turkey brooding areas and preflight poult mortality. I expanded on cutting edge techniques to develop a protocol to equip recently hatched poults with miniature radiotransmitters in order to track individual poults through radio-telemetry. We collected vegetation measurements from sites centered on pre-flight brood locations, including shrub density and parameters, ground cover, and tree characteristics. I then examined correlations between daily preflight poult survival and habitat parameters. Methodology was standardized among study sites, allowing me to compare survival and habitat among different habitat types and management regimes.
I obtained my B.S. degree in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at the University of Arizona. While in Tucson, I worked with Dames and Moore and the Arizona Game and Fish Department as an ecological consultant and biologist. I worked on several field projects, including vegetation surveys, bat surveys, raptor surveys in Arizona and New Mexico, cactus ferruginous pygmy-owl surveys for the Air Force, and southwestern willow flycatcher breeding and monitoring surveys.
I worked with the USFWS at the Rocky Mountain Arsenal National Wildlife Refuge in Colorado as a biological technician. After two seasons with the Service, I had done everything from songbird surveys to prairie dog trapping and relocation, and loved every minute of it. I have a great desire to conduct research in ecology. My career aspirations include developing management programs through research for threatened and endangered species. I am dedicated to the preservation of species and their habitat, and am very excited to have the opportunity to help develop and implement policies designed for their preservation.
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Matthew J.
Butler
last updated
11/06/06