Olivia Gray
Sul Ross State University
Graduate Research Assistant for Borderlands Research Institute Major: Range & Wildlife Management
Dietary Overlap and Temporal Resource Partitioning of Desert Bighorn Sheep, Aoudad, and Mule Deer in the Van Horn Mountains, Texas
My name is Olivia Gray and I am from San Antonio, Texas. Growing up, I spent a lot of time camping and hiking with my family and have always appreciated the outdoors and the plants and animals within it. My love for the outdoors and conservation led me to pursue a degree in Natural Resources Management from Texas Tech University where I gained a wide variety of field experiences. This led me to gain a deeper appreciation for research and specifically, desert ecosystems. It also presented me with the opportunity to attend graduate school at Sul Ross State University.
My graduate project is looking at the competitive interactions between non-native aoudad and two native Texas ungulate species, mule deer and desert bighorn sheep. Through collecting and investigating their fecal samples, I look for dietary overlap within the three species. I am also researching if these similar ungulates partition specific resources such as escape terrain and water. I am studying these cycles through time to determine changes in resource importance and how temporal partitioning of resources changes throughout the year. I feel very fortunate to work for Borderlands Research Institute and further big game research and hunting education.
