Answering the Call of the Wild: With the First Two-Year Program of Its Kind, Southwest Texas Junior College Is Introducing Students to the Field of Wildlife Management

Zaiglin, Robert, Techniques

As the first cool front of the year arrived in the brush country of South Texas, a young college student ensconced in an elevated deer blind was living his dream. With the sudden drop in temperature, a surge in deer activity occurred as the older, larger-racked bucks began to appear in the semi-open chaparral. The student estimated each deer's age and antler size in inches and jotted notes for later reference.

After glassing (viewing through binoculars) several mature bucks exhibiting 10 or more points and scoring in excess of 150 inches, the young man's adrenalin level escalated in anticipation of seeing one of the old monarchs known to frequent the area As the sun dipped below the pastel, orange-colored evening horizon, a buck appeared 100 yards from his position.

The large, dark-bodied buck with jet-black, damp hocks appeared then rapidly disappeared back into the sea of brush, but not before the young man could distinguish 16 points on massive, wide-sweeping beams. A rack of this magnitude does not require much time to critique before a decision to shoot is made, but the young man was not hunting. He was scouting the area for a client who would be arriving in a few days.

The harvest of a predetermined segment of the standing crop--in this case, deer--is one of the most fascinating phases of wildlife management. The student was working on the ranch as a wildlife intern. It …

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Publication information: Article title: Answering the Call of the Wild: With the First Two-Year Program of Its Kind, Southwest Texas Junior College Is Introducing Students to the Field of Wildlife Management. Contributors: Zaiglin, Robert - Author. Magazine title: Techniques. Volume: 81. Issue: 4 Publication date: April 2006. Page number: 20+. © 2007 Association for Career and Technical Education. COPYRIGHT 2006 Gale Group.

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