Kali Pereira, who is a PhD student in the Department of Infectious and Global Health, will be giving a presentation in partial fulfillment of her Qualifying Examination. Her mentor is Dr. Allen Rutberg. The title of her presentation is:

"Developing an outcomes assessment for community-based deer management efforts"

Ms. Pereira’s presentation will take place on Tuesday, May 6, 2025, from 1:00 to 2:00 pm in building 20 Classroom/Conference room in-person and, also via zoom.

The zoom link will be shared via email.

Presentation summary:

Human-wildlife conflicts related to white-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus) in urban and suburban communities throughout North America are well-documented. Root- causes of conflicts between people and deer are often traced to potential risks to human health and safety such as tick-borne illness, deer-vehicle collisions, and environmental impacts related to browsing. These are often symptoms of adaptations in deer behavior to accommodate the busy nature of urban and suburban communities, coupled with preferences of female deer utilizing small home-ranges close to nutritional resources that residential areas provide. A rise in frequency of human-deer conflicts often fuels a call for action at the community-level. Community-based deer management is a growing trend over the last 25 years as deer management requires immense effort and funding which regulatory authorities are unable to support beyond subject guidance.  Prompts for comprehensive deer management in community-settings distributed by wildlife agencies, non-governmental animal welfare organizations, and wildlife professional working groups offer insights on defining conflicts and how they might be measured in order to understand and justify management strategies but fail to provide clear ways to evaluate the success of implemented strategies and their outcomes for deer and people. The objective of this study is to establish a standardized approach to data collection and analysis for evaluating the impacts of a community deer management program, effectively creating an outcomes assessment (OA) of community deer conflict management. Residential survey responses and spatial analysis of deer related conflicts and management interventions from a sample community engaged in deer management efforts will be used to model our approach towards (1) identifying locations and severity of impacts of white-tailed deer conflicts in the example community, (2) introducing a site suitability analysis for conflict mitigations strategies, and (3) evaluating whether deer management strategies are effective at improving residents’ relationships with deer in their community.  This research will be a novel approach to developing methods for community leaders to combine and analyze multiple data streams and communicate program successes at reducing conflicts and improving relationships between humans and deer.