A University of Wyoming Ph.D. student has been selected as the second-ever Muley Fanatic Fellow. Rebekah Rafferty, of Solvang, Calif., is the current project leader of the long-running Wyoming Range Mule Deer Project, which started in 2013.

The Muley Fanatic Foundation (MFF) established the Muley Fanatic Foundation Excellence Fund through UW’s Haub School of Environment and Natural Resources in 2021 to support research at UW focusing on mule deer and their conservation.

Originally a modern literature student, Rafferty added an environmental studies degree as an undergraduate that opened the pathway for her to study ecology and social science. Rafferty earned her master’s degree, during which she learned to track and interpret wildlife signs and discovered her passion for studying animals.

Now a Ph.D. student under the direction of Kevin Monteith, a UW professor and Wyoming Excellence Chair, Rafferty’s work does exactly that: looking at the historic Wyoming Range mule deer herd and how the deer have contended with and continue to recover from past harsh winters and drastic changes in their environment through the lens of individual deer.

Learning from UW alumna Tayler LaSharr, who led the project for years, Rafferty attempts to honor the work of those who worked on the project from the beginning.

“The more I have gotten to experience knowing individuals intimately across their entire lives, the more I have recognized how incredibly important long-term research is to understand and predict population dynamics in wild and unpredictable ecosystems,” Rafferty says.

She spends much of the year monitoring more than 70 individual deer through their GPS collars. In December and March, she organizes helicopter captures of each animal and, in the spring and summer, she captures and collars their newly born offspring.

Rafferty says she is learning the power of being able to tell each deer’s story, from what it means in communicating her findings to what it means collectively in understanding their ecology as she pieces together her dissertation.

The Muley Fanatic Foundation has a proven history of funding and supporting science-based research as a pillar of the organizational mission, to ensure the conservation of mule deer and their habitat, and to provide such supporting services to further the sport of hunting and sound wildlife management.

“The invaluable work of the Monteith Shop and the addition of the MFF Fellow are invaluable efforts that align with our labors to further the MFF mission,” says Joshua Coursey, MFF president and CEO. “The torch was lit and carried by Dr. LaSharr, and we are elated to welcome Rebekah to this exclusive fold.”

For more information, email Taylor Wagstaff, Monteith Shop lab coordinator, at tkennah1@uwyo.edu or visit www.monteithshop.org.

For more information about the MMF Excellence Fund or to support the MFF, visit www.muleyfanatic.org.

This story was originally published on UW News.