Albert and Margaret Alkek Ungulate Research Facility
The Albert and Margaret Alkek Ungulate Research Facility consists of three, one-acre pens to house deer when they are not being used in trials, three, one-third acre pens for behavioral research, and ultimately, eighteen fifteen by thirty foot pens for long term nutritional research. A large, 4,500 square foot barn contains a laboratory, a feed preparation area, animal handling facilities, and several small pens for highly controlled nutritional and physiological studies. The facility is also planned to have ten pens for holding collared peccaries and wild pigs, a quarantine area for sick animals, and two silos for storage of pelleted feed.
The 5.25 acre Albert and Margaret Alkek Ungulate Research Facility is located in the northwest corner of the Tio & Janell Kleberg Wildlife Research Park. This facility is used for studies of ungulates, that is “hoofed animals”, specifically white-tailed deer, feral pigs, collared peccary, and nilgai antelope. Construction on the Ungulate Research Facility began in fall 2005 and was completed during the winter of 2006.
The Albert and Margaret Alkek Ungulate Research Facility will enable scientists at the Institute to conduct the highly specialized research needed to address the needs of landowners and wildlife managers in southern Texas and throughout North America. The facility will be used to conduct research into ungulate foraging and nutrition, reproduction, behavior, thermoregulation, and disease.
Current Research Projects
- Evaluation of female estrous response to supplemental feed
- Effects of whole cottonseed on libido in male deer
- Evaluation of potassium supplementation and its affect on nitrogen metabolism