Research Opportunities at
Dancing Rain Ranch
The Dancing Rain Ranch is located in the Little River valley south of the Kiamichi Mountains and north of the Boktuklo Mountains. It covers an area of 80 acres and includes the Little River, several small streams, one permanent spring-fed pond, a permanent ox-bow lake with a beaver dam, a large seasonal pond, and another smaller seasonal pond. Insects, aquatic invertebrates, amphibians, reptiles, small mammals, birds, and deer are abundant. During late 2008, we installed a series of drift-fence arrays to begin monitoring species diversity, seasonal activity, relative abundance, and movements of amphibians and reptiles. We have also begun a project to determine species of mammals, birds, and invertebrates on the site.
We encourage interested biologists to contact us about research possibilities on the Dancing Rain Ranch. We can make special accomodations for biologists interested in either short- or long-term projects. A multitude of potential Master's and Ph.D. thesis projects could be conducted on the site or in the surrounding region, using the ranch as a center of operations. We plan to have high-tech climate monitoring equipment in place during Spring of 2009, and we have several large, lockable spaces that can serve as laboratory space. We are amenable to construction of trapping systems, terraria for observational studies, or other facilities that contribute to research. Finally, we are always interested in collaborative long-term projects.
We have just begun collecting data from our drift fence arrays. It seems clear that these traps work extremely well for the following animals: all amphibians and reptiles, shrews, mice and voles, carabid beetles, mutilid wasps, crayfish, millipedes, and centipedes.
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