SCI Conservation

Starting off with a good year. The birds are hatching, the fawns are born, and college students are off for the summer “well some of use are”. For the lucky few who are still in school studying and doing our projects; this summer feels like another day just a little hotter. I am a student attending Texas State University receiving a Bachelors of Science in Wildlife Biology. For many years my parents and I have been a member of SCI and I have recently joined the Alamo chapter. Its great how everyone comes to see friends, to talk about each others latest hunting trips or just to brag on how big of a trophy that we got. I have had the privilege of being elected the Conservation Director and feel very fortunate to be apart of this prosperous chapter. The Safari Club International - Alamo Chapter has had the privilege of sponsoring Dawn Ferrell a current graduate student whom attends Texas State University. Dawn examines the relationship between body weight and stomach capacity. Stomach capacity in relation to body weight has implications for the kinds of forages consumed and habitat selection by ungulates. Some people say "animals with large stomach capacities should be able to tolerate poorer quality forage because they can retain food in the digestive tract long enough to extract more nutrients". This may be so, but this is why Dawn is harvesting 30 Axis deer (10 Bucks and 20 Does) at the Double D Ranch (Bastrop County). The club has donated the money for Dawn to do her detergent analyses so she can calculates the amount of fiber in plants consumed by ungulates. This is a start of many much needed conservation projects that the Alamo chapter is involved in sponsoring. Because of the members and supporters of the Alamo chapter and of SCI national, projects like this are able to receive much needed funding So I send my thanks out to the members and supporters of SCI- Alamo chapter. So I leave you with this, keep hunting with you kids, keep supporting wildlife conservation, and keep on hunting.