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Wild Deer Culling Research pt.1 - The King Ranch Study
Wildlife Investments
Chapters
0:02
Intro, Event Announcement & Guest Welcome
1:07
What Is Culling & Why Does It Matter?
6:17
What Sparked the King Ranch Experiment
7:49
Why Low Nutrition? The Science Behind the "Swing Deer" Theory
12:32
The King Ranch Study Design
15:30
How Progress Was Measured & Unbiased Sampling
18:37
What the Data Showed
21:17
What Went Wrong? Culling Rate, Buck Dispersal & Pre-Rut Timing
31:45
Breeding Success in Whitetail Bucks
40:56
Human Error & the Double Whammy of Failed Culling
45:31
What This Means for the Average Landowner in the Southeast
53:09
Teaser for Part 2 — Enclosed Populations & the Comanche Ranch
55:41
Outro
Wildlife Investments
Wild Deer Culling Research pt.1 - The King Ranch Study
Jul 15, 2026
Season 1
Episode 16
Moriah Boggess
Long debated in deer hunting stories, the subject of wild deer culling for genetic improvement is a debate that never dies, but there is a lot of sound research that has examined this question. This is the first of a three part series reviewing the results of genetic culling research. On this episode we're joined by Dr. Mickey Hellickson to discuss foundational deer culling research that he helped lead on the famous King Ranch looking at genetic culling via hunting in a free-range setting.
The full study can be found below
https://wildlife.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdfdirect/10.1002/wmon.70013
