This study utilized geographic information systems, remote sensing, and infrared-triggered cameras to assess white-tailed deer habitat in Denton County, Texas. Denton County is experiencing tremendous growth in both population and development. Despite their presence here historically, white-tailed deer were all but extirpated by the beginning of the 20th century, and there are no data available which support their presence in Denton County again until the 1980's. This study attempts to equate the increase in white-tailed deer population to Denton County's transformation from an agricultural to an urban economy and lifestyle. Eighteen sites were chosen throughout the county to research the following metrics: geology, soils, landcover, landscape ecology, streams, shorelines, land use, population, roads, structures, and census methods.

This analysis of faunal remains from Goodman Point Pueblo (5MT604), a large village occupied just before the ancestral Puebloans permanently left southwestern Colorado at the end of the thirteenth century, explores the effect of dietary stress during abandonment in the Four Corners region. As archaeologists, we interpret what these former cultures were like and what resources they used through what they left behind. By specifically looking at faunal remains, or remains from food resources, environmental change and dietary stress can be assessed. Identifications of taxa identified at Goodman Point are made explicit via a systematic paleontology. This is followed by site-level taxonomic abundances and spatial analysis. Then, effects of technological innovations, environmental change, and sample quality are examined as alternate explanations of shifts in foraging efficiency, particularly related to animal hunting. Analyzing why and if the availability of faunal resources changes over time helps to clarify why the ancestral Puebloans left southwestern Colorado.

This analysis of faunal remains from eleven archaeological sites in the northern San Juan region, extensively occupied by the Ancestral Pueblo people until they leave the region by AD 1300, explores the effects of resource intensification of small wild and domestic resources leading up to this regional depopulation. By examining multiple lines of evidence, in addition to faunal abundance, causal factors are identified to address changes in abundances through time. In particular, age- and sex-based mortality are examined for lagomorphs (jackrabbits and cottontails) and domesticated turkey, respectively, to test hypotheses generated using the prey and patch choice models. Analyses of these resources follow a systematic paleontology which provides explicit identifications made of five sites from a large study area, Goodman Point Pueblo Unit. These data are integrated with those from large village sites from the encompassing central Mesa Verde region. The results of both analyses help clarify why the Ancestral Pueblo people left southwestern Colorado. During the final twenty-year occupation period, the results of this study support a shift from reliance on turkey husbandry to intense exploitation of locally available garden resources (i.e. cottontails).