STAFFORD ? At Quivira National Wildlife Refuge, “catch and release” refers to bigger game – deer. The refuge is the site of the first large deer research project in Kansas.

On a recent cold Saturday morning at 6 a.m., seven people gathered at the refuge Bunk House, wolfing down a quick breakfast before heading out to check several deer traps.

“We’ve been up 26 hours,” said Kevin Blecha, Kansas State University Division of Biology research assistant, who is in charge of the project.

Trapping deer is hard, labor-intensive work, but it’s also an adrenaline rush. Running back to gather equipment after finding a small buck in a trap, Megan Friedrichs, Kansas Department of Wildlife and Parks biology technician, says she’s no longer cold.

“Kansas is the last state to do this type of work,” said Lloyd Fox, wildlife department big game program coordinator.

“There’s never been a project like this in Kansas,” Blecha said. “There’s no information on the basic biology of individual deer in Kansas. This won’t be representative of all areas, but it will start giving us an idea (of their biology).”

The study is funded by the U.S Fish and Wildlife Service, with help from the Kansas Department of Wildlife and Parks, for at least one year. Project goals focus on quantifying the deer population on the refuge so refuge staff can get a better picture of how the animals affect the refuge environment. Blecha is also collecting information on deer movements, habitat use and deer herd social structure.

“It’s a unique area,” Fox said, “with a very dense population of deer.”

The numbers of deer present at the refuge provides ample opportunity to capture, tag and release up to 60 deer, if they cooperate. To this point, Blecha and his assistants have tagged or collared over 40 deer.

The work began in late November. Since this study is an extra project for Blecha, in addition to two other research projects, the trapping and tagging is conducted on weekends late at night and early morning when the deer are active.

“We went two weeks strong but were shut down the whole month of December,” Blecha said.

Once the weather cleared, trapping and tagging began again, but not without challenges.

“The traps are like large have-a-heart traps,” Blecha said.

They are introduced into an area and baited for a couple of weeks to acclimate the deer to the traps. In cold weather, deer are more likely to enter traps to get at the food. At first Blecha used corn as bait; however, another common Quivira mammal – raccoons – found the offering to their liking. Free food was too much of a temptation for the opportunists, and Blecha switched to alfalfa hay in some traps.

Trapping and tagging will continue through mid-April. Once the weather begins warming up, it becomes too stressful on the animals to trap them, Blecha said, and it’s harder to get them interested in bait when they have fresh tender grass to graze.

After the trapping wraps up, the tracking will begin. Friedrichs has been living at the bunk house during the week and following the deer. In the summer, Blecha’s co-project manager, Jonathan Conard, a Sterling College professor, will help track the deer.