Conversations with Bobcat
Researcher, Shane Roberts
By Cindy Perry
T
he Kiawah Conservancy decides which Kiawah properties are most
beneficial to preserve for our wildlife population by working closely
with researchers, studying Island wildlife and analyzing data from
ongoing research about their preferred habitats, diet, and movement
corridors on the Island. By examining the interconnectedness of the varied wildlife
and changes in their habitat as a result of development, the Conservancy can
identify and prioritize areas that are essential for the balance and survival of
native wildlife.
In 1974 when the Kuwaitis purchased an undeveloped Kiawah Island, they
created a well-thought-out, environmentally sensitive plan to guide future
development. Since then a number of individuals have been hired by the Town of
Kiawah Island and the Kiawah Conservancy to conduct research in conjunction
with Town biologists and naturalists, studying ways to maintain the balance
between development and wildlife and suggesting best practices for wildlife/habitat
preservation. Shane Roberts, who is presently the Principal Wildlife Research
Biologist at the Idaho Department of Fish and Game, conducted three of those
research projects. I had the privilege of speaking with him in May of 2016.
Shane grew up in eastern Washington State and did his undergraduate work
at Lewis-Clark State College. He always wanted to be a marine biologist. After
working at the Idaho Department of Fish and Game as a wildlife technician, Shane
enrolled at the University of Georgia (UGA) to pursue a PhD in Wildlife Ecology
and Management. In 2002, he began his research projects on Kiawah Island.
Initially, Shane started working with Town biologist, Jim Jordan, and others, to
study the effectiveness of managing the deer population using various birth-control
methods. Deer management is critical for Kiawah so that the deer population does
not grow too large and consume all the vegetation on the Island. The group divided
the Island’s deer into two sections—the control group and the group receiving
contraception. They concluded that birth control did not affect the number of
fawns that survived. Something else was keeping the deer in check. They suspected
that the most significant predator of the Island’s white-tailed deer was the bobcat.
Thus they designed a follow-up project to gather data about this theorized missing
link. Shane wrote his thesis and numerous articles about these research projects.
“Technology was not as sophisticated back then,” Shane observed. He explained
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Naturally Kiawah