Michael J. Cherry

• PhD
• Professor (Associate) at Texas A&M University – Kingsville

Extreme climatic events (ECEs) are increasing in frequency and intensity and this necessitates understanding their influence on organisms. Animal behaviour may mitigate the effects of ECEs, but field studies are rare because ECEs are infrequent and unpredictable. Hurricane Irma made landfall in southwestern Florida where we were monitoring white-ta...

Large carnivore restoration programs are often promoted as capable of providing ecosystem services. However, these programs rarely measure effects of successful restoration on other economically and ecologically important species. In South Florida, while the endangered Florida panther Puma concolor coryi population has increased in recent years due...

Understanding spatiotemporal variation in habitat quality is essential for guiding wildlife reintroduction and restoration programs. The habitat productivity hypothesis posits that home range size is inversely related to habitat quality. Thus, home range size may be used as a proxy for habitat quality and can identify important land cover features...

Predation risk and prey responses exhibit fluctuations in space and time. Seasonal ecological disturbances can alter landscape structure and permeability to influence predator activity and efficacy, creating predictable patterns of risk for prey (seasonal risk landscapes). This may create corresponding seasonal shifts in antipredator behaviour, med...

A narrative in ecology is that prey modify traits to reduce predation risk, and the trait modification has costs large enough to cause ensuing demographic, trophic and ecosystem consequences, with implications for conservation, management and agriculture. But ecology has a long history of emphasising that quantifying the importance of an ecological...

Context Thermal conditions can influence animal behavior and predator–prey dynamics. Understanding the effects of temperature on animals and their interactions is of increasing importance given predictions for global warming. Objectives We determined how temperature influenced avoidance of risky areas and habitat selection in a climate generalist,...

White-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus) have high value for research, conservation, agriculture, and recreation and might be key SARS-CoV-2 reservoirs. In November 2023, we sampled 15 female deer in a captive facility in Texas, USA. All deer had neutralizing antibodies to SARS-CoV-2; respiratory swab samples from 11 deer were SARS-CoV-2-positive...

Defensive traits are hypothesized to benefit prey by reducing predation risk from a focal predator but come at a cost to the fitness of the prey. Variation in the expression of defensive traits is seen among individuals within the same population, and in the same individual in response to changes in the environment (i.e., phenotypically plastic res...

White-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus) have high value for research, conservation, agriculture and recreation, and may be important SARS-CoV-2 reservoirs with unknown human health implications. In November 2023, we sampled 15 female deer in a captive facility in central Texas, USA. All individuals had neutralizing antibodies against SARS-CoV-2...

Context There is a growing appreciation that wildlife behavioral responses to environmental conditions are scale-dependent and that identifying the scale where the effect of an environmental variable on a behavior is the strongest (i.e., scale of effect) can reveal how animals perceive and respond to their environment. In South Texas, brush managem...

In the age of global climate change, extreme climatic events are expected to increase in frequency and severity. Animals will be forced to cope with these novel stressors in their environment. Glucocorticoids (i.e. ‘stress’ hormones) facilitate an animal’s ability to cope with their environment. To date, most studies involving glucocorticoids focus...

Human activities catalyse risk avoidance behaviours in wildlife across taxa and systems. However, the broader ecological significance of human‐induced risk perception remains unclear, with a limited understanding of how phenotypic responses scale up to affect population or community dynamics. We present a framework informed by predator–prey ecology...

Competition is a complex ecological process involving individual and community interactions at ecological and evolutionary time scales. Individuals within and between species can compete through two mechanisms: exploitative and interference competition. These mechanisms often co‐occur, making it difficult to develop a mechanistic understanding of c...

We document the presence of bobcats ( Lynx rufus ) that demonstrate melanism in the Greater Everglades. The South Florida landscape is driven by a myriad of disturbance regimes particularly that of short fire intervals. We monitored 180 camera traps for 3 years and obtained 9503 photographs of bobcats 25 (<0.5%) of these detections included melanis...

Aim Mitigating the effects of extreme conditions is a mechanism that can structure the activity patterns and habitat selection of a species and may particularly impact species at the extremes of their geographic distribution. Furthermore, changing climate patterns have the potential to influence biotic interactions between species in novel ways. As...

Understanding the role of recruitment in population dynamics of white‐tailed deer ( Odocoileus virginianus ) is important for management. In the central Appalachian Mountains, deer are part of a largely forested ecosystem that supports 3 carnivore species thought to be capable of influencing white‐tailed deer recruitment: black bears ( Urus america...

Visual perception is dynamic and depends on physiological properties of a species’ visual system and physical characteristics of the environment. White-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus) are most sensitive to short- and mid-wavelength light (e.g. blue and green). Wavelength enrichment varies spatially and temporally across the landscape. We asses...

Habitat selection by animals is a complex, dynamic process that can vary across spatial and temporal scales. Understanding habitat selection is a vital component of managing endangered species. Ocelots (Leopardus pardalis), a medium-sized endangered felid, overlap in their northern range with bobcats (Lynx rufus) and coyotes (Canis latrans), with a...

Abstract In south Florida, white‐tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus) are the primary prey of the endangered Florida panther (Puma concolor coryi). Deer populations in some regions of south Florida have declined in recent years, and the role of fawn survival and recruitment in these declines is unknown. Determining known‐fate survival of fawns is c...

Presently, there are an estimated 6.9 million wild pigs (Sus scrofa) in the U.S., which cause over US$1 billion in damage to agriculture, environmental impacts, and control costs. However, estimates of damage have varied widely, creating a need for standardized monitoring and a method to accurately estimate the economic costs of direct wild pig dam...

Visual perception is dynamic and depends on physiological properties of a species’ visual system and physical characteristics of the environment. White-tailed deer ( Odocoileus virginianus ) are most sensitive to short- and mid-wavelength light (e.g., blue and green). Wavelength enrichment varies spatially and temporally across the landscape. We as...

Baited camera surveys are often used to study white‐tailed deer Odocoileus virginianus populations and inform harvest decisions. Surveys are commonly conducted in late summer or early fall when deer populations are expected to be segregated sexually, whereas hunting seasons typically occur during the breeding season when sexes are likely to be mixe...

Context Maintaining landscape connectivity for wildlife has become a conservation priority in response to increasing land development and road networks. Roads affect many wildlife populations worldwide, with the distribution and density of roads having negative impacts on gene flow and landscape connectivity. Objectives We aimed to identify areas...

Disturbance of wildlife from aircraft during aerial surveys could affect behavior or displace animals, causing them to cross multiple transects resulting in double counting or increasing likelihood of them seeking cover thereby impacting detection probability. We monitored 14 GPS‐instrumented male white‐tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus) during h...

Wild pigs (Sus scrofa) are one of the most successful invasive species globally and are often implicated in agricultural damage. This damage is expected to increase as ranges of wild pigs expand, impacting the human food supply and increasing costs of food production. Our objective was to evaluate movement behaviors of wild pigs relative to resourc...

Knowledge of the effects of hunting and environmental influences on survival of eastern wild turkeys (Meleagris gallopavo silvestris) is critical to managers setting fall and spring hunting seasons. Research has shown improper season frameworks can result in unsustainably high harvest rates of adult males, affect male age structure, and result in l...

Background Wildlife conservation often focuses on establishing protected areas. However, these conservation zones are frequently established without adequate knowledge of the movement patterns of the species they are designed to protect. Understanding movement and foraging patterns of species in dynamic and diverse habitats can allow managers to de...

Context Fire influences the distribution of ecosystems on Earth, but the link between pyrodiversity, the heterogeneity in post-fire conditions, and biodiversity is just emerging. Objectives We tested the pyrodiversity begets biodiversity theory, which was developed at broader scales, to a scale where land management decisions are commonly made. M...

Some jurisdictions in the eastern United States have reduced harvest of white‐tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus) because of perceived declines in recruitment and population size over the last decade. Although the restoration of American black bears (Ursus americanus) and the colonization of coyotes (Canis latrans) have increased fawn predation in...

Long‐term monitoring is an important component of effective wildlife conservation. However, many methods for estimating density are too costly or difficult to implement over large spatial and temporal extents. Recently developed spatial mark–resight (SMR) models are increasingly being applied as a cost‐effective method to estimate density when data...

Free-ranging white-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus) across the United States are increasingly recognized for infection and transmission of SARS-CoV-2. Through a cross-sectional study of 80 deer at three captive cervid facilities in central and southern Texas, we provide evidence of 34 of 36 (94.4%) white-tailed deer at a single captive cervid f...

Both fire and predators have strong influences on the population dynamics and behaviour of animals, and the effects of predators may either be strengthened or weakened by fire. However, knowledge of how fire drives or mediates predator-prey interactions is fragmented and has not been synthesised. Here, we review and synthesise knowledge of how fire...

Fear of the human ‘super predator’ has been demonstrated to so alter the feeding behavior of large carnivores as to cause trophic cascades. It has yet to be experimentally tested if fear of humans has comparably large effects on the feeding behavior of large herbivores. We conducted a predator playback experiment exposing white-tailed deer to the v...

Studies of animal abundance and distribution are often conducted independently of research on movement, despite the important links between processes. Movement can cause rapid changes in spatial variation in density, and movement influences detection probability and therefore estimates of abundance from inferential methods such as spatial capture–r...

Background Understanding the effects of disturbance events, land cover, and weather on wildlife activity is fundamental to wildlife management. Currently, in North America, bats are of high conservation concern due to white-nose syndrome and wind-energy development impact, but the role of fire as a potential additional stressor has received less fo...

Background Wildlife conservation often focuses on establishing protected areas, however, these conservation zones are frequently developed without adequate knowledge of the movement patterns of the species they are designed to protect. Understanding movement and foraging patterns of species in dynamic and diverse habitats can allow managers to deve...

Context Predation-risk and ecological disturbance regimes can both influence behavioral decisions by prey, yet few studies have simultaneously considered responses to these ecological pressures. Elucidating relationships between predation risk and the costs and benefits associated with multiple natural disturbances can contribute to a better unders...

Simple Summary Bait is often used to attract wildlife to enhance viewing opportunities, increase harvest rates, or to improve population survey methods for research and management purposes. However, baiting wildlife can alter animal behavior, leading to negative outcomes such as increased disease transmission, competition, and susceptibility to pre...

On large management units where terrain allows observation of white‐tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus) from the air, helicopter surveys may provide managers with cost‐effective and accurate estimates of population abundance; however, imperfect detection of deer introduces negative bias. This can result in potentially inappropriate management reco...

Day-roost selection by Lasiurine tree bats during winter and their response to dormant season fires is unknown in the southeastern United States where dormant season burning is widely applied. Although fires historically were predominantly growing season, they now occur in the dormant season in this part of the Coastal Plain to support a myriad of...

Prey species often mitigate predation risk through alteration of spatiotemporal diel activity patterns whereby prey access high-quality resources in risky areas during predator downtimes. However, dominance hierarchies exist in some prey species, and temporal partitioning is a mechanism thought to reduce aggressive intraspecific interactions. How d...

Research on the ecology of fear has highlighted the importance of perceived risk from predators and humans in shaping animal behavior and physiology, with potential demographic and ecosystem‐wide consequences. Despite recent conceptual advances and potential management implications of the ecology of fear, theory and conservation practices have rare...

Across taxa, sex-specific demands vary temporally in accordance with reproductive investments. In solitary carnivores, females must provision and protect young independently while meeting increased energetic demands. Males seek to monopolize access to females by maintaining large territories and defending them from other males. For many species, it...

Changing predator communities have been implicated in reduced survival of white‐tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus) fawns. Few studies, however, have used field‐based age‐specific estimates for survival and fecundity to assess the relative importance of low fawn survival on population growth and harvest potential. We studied white‐tailed deer popu...

Camera trap technology has galvanized the study of predator–prey ecology in wild animal communities by expanding the scale and diversity of predator–prey interactions that can be analysed. While observational data from systematic camera arrays have informed inferences on the spatiotemporal outcomes of predator–prey interactions, the capacity for ob...

Understanding the link between environmental factors such as disturbance events, land cover, and soil productivity to spatial variation in animal abundance is fundamental to population ecology and wildlife management. The Longleaf pine (Pinus palustris) ecosystem is an archetypal fire-mediated ecosystem, which has seen drastic reductions in land ar...

Bobcats are an apex predator and a species of socio-cultural importance in the central Appalachian Mountains. Despite their importance, knowledge of bobcat spatial ecology in the region is sparse. We examined space use and resource selection of bobcats in the Appalachian Mountains of western Virginia during 3 biological seasons: breeding (January-M...

In the presence of a predator, prey may alter their temporal activity patterns to reduce the risk of an encounter that may induce injury or death. Prey perception of predation risk and antipredator responses may increase in the presence of dependent offspring. We conducted a camera trap study during summer 2015 in North Carolina and Tennessee, USA...

• Fear of predators can behaviorally mediate prey population dynamics, particularly when predation risk influences reproductive investment. However, the costs of reproductive investment may mitigate predation risk aversion relative to periods when the link between reproductive output and prey behavior is weaker. • We posit that intensity of reprodu...

Understanding the factors influencing recruitment in animal populations is an important objective of many research and conservation programmes. However, evaluating hypotheses is challenging because recruitment is the outcome of birth and survival processes that are difficult to directly observe. Capture–recapture is the most general framework for e...

Resource selection by female white-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus) and their offspring during the fawning season can influence survival and recruitment. The selection process in females is thought to represent the balancing of often competing demands to minimize predation risk and maximize resource availability to support the energetic demands...

Behavioral responses of prey to predation risk can affect lower trophic levels. White-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus; hereafter deer) increase vigilance in response to coyote (Canis latrans) presence, but vigilance responses to spatiotemporal variation in coyote abundance are unknown. Therefore, we examined the relationship between deer foragi...

Fire influences the distributions of cover and food resources for ungulates in frequently burned systems. Fire typically improves forage quality, and as a result, herbivores are often drawn to recently burned areas–a response termed the ‘magnet effect.’ Thus, fire can be an important tool for manipulating vegetation to benefit wildlife. However, mo...

Understanding habitat selection of gray foxes (Urocyon cinereoargenteus) is essential to evaluate their potential response to changes in land use and predator communities. Few studies have evaluated temporal habitat selection or explicitly identified habitats used by gray foxes for diurnal refugia. We used GPS collars to obtain location data for 34...

Despite numerous studies estimating gray fox Urocyon cinereoargenteus home range sizes, there have been few studies to evaluate more nuanced space use patterns; thus little is known about gray fox spatial ecology beyond estimates of home range size. We used GPS-technology to track 34 gray foxes (20 males and 14 females) from February 2014 until Dec...

Prey species must balance predator avoidance behavior with other essential activities including foraging, breeding, and social interactions. Anti-predator behaviors such as vigilance can impede resource acquisition rates by altering foraging behavior. However, in addition to predation risk, foraging behavior may also be affected by socio-sexual fac...

(ZIP)

Changing predator communities have potential to complicate management focused on ensuring sustainable white-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus) populations. Recent research reported that predation on neonates by coyotes (Canis latrans) and bobcats (Lynx rufus) can limit recruitment. However, no research has been conducted in areas of the southeast...

Predation risk can induce individual prey to express behavioral, physiological, and morphological traits that can influence population-level processes. Maternal care is an intuitive link between predator-mediated traits of individuals and population-level processes because maternal investment can decrease with predation risk, and often influences p...

Context Throughout the world, declines in large mammalian carnivores have led to the release of smaller meso-mammalian predators. Coyotes (Canis latrans) have increased in abundance, distribution and ecological influence following the extirpation of apex predators in North America. Coyotes have had substantial influence on many ecosystems in recent...

A long standing interest in ecology has been to understand the effects of abiotic factors on organisms and their interactions within ecological communities. This understanding has become increasingly important in light of rapid anthropogenic climate change. One of the most under-studied aspect of climate change is changing wind speed, which are gen...

Camera surveys commonly are used by managers and hunters to estimate white-tailed deer Odocoileus virginianus density and demographic rates. Though studies have documented biases and inaccuracies in the camera survey methodology, camera traps remain popular due to ease of use, cost-effectiveness, and ability to survey large areas. Because recruitme...

Raccoons (Procyon lotor) are native and ubiquitous throughout much of the continental United States and are invasive in many countries around the world. Where they occur, raccoons are a known predator of ground-nesting birds and herpetofauna. Raccoons often are associated with hardwood trees; therefore, hardwood reduction in open pine (Pinus spp.)...

Predators can have powerful nonconsumptive effects on their prey by inducing behavioral, physiological, and morphological responses. These nonconsumptive effects may influence prey demography if they decrease birthrates or increase susceptibility to other sources of mortality. The Reproductive Suppression Model suggests that iteroparous species may...

The ecological implications of coyote Canis latrans colonization of the eastern USA have drawn considerable interest from land managers and the general public. The ability to predict how these ecosystems, which have lacked larger predators for decades, would respond to the invasion of this highly adaptable species needs an understanding of coyote f...

Antler-based selective-harvest criteria (SHC) for white-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus) management is common on public lands throughout the Southeast despite little published literature examining their effects on harvest composition, antlered harvest per unit effort (HPE), and antler scores. Particularly, SHCs may select against larger-antlere...

Lethal control of coyotes (Canis latrans) is a mechanism for increasing white-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus) recruitment but can be difficult to implement and may be ineffective on small parcels of land because of coyote immigration. In 2003, we constructed 4 40-ha mesopredator exclosures with the objective of quantifying the influence of mes...

Costs associated with antipredator behaviors can have profound effects on prey populations. We investigated the effects of predation risk on white-tailed deer foraging behavior by manipulating predator distributions through exclusion while controlling for effects of habitat type. In 2003, we constructed predator exclosures on 4 of 8 approximately 4...

Managing white-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus) populations requires an understanding of fawn survival and cause-specific mortality. In the Southeast, coyotes (Canis latrans) and bobcats (Lynx rufus) can be major sources of fawn mortality and may limit some white-tailed deer populations. We captured and radio-collared 47 fawns at the Joseph W....

Vaginal implant transmitters (VITs) are small radiotransmitters implanted in the vaginal canal of adult female ungulates following the breeding season. Immediately prior to parturition, the VIT is expelled and a temperature sensor causes the pulse rate to change from 40 pulses/minute to 80 pulses/minute, thereby indicating a parturition event to re...