Passport to Texas

I’m lucky enough to have worked for four generations. So now my bosses are much younger than I, but that’s cool, too, because I put lots of responsibility on them.

My name is Scott Lerich, and I’m a wildlife biologist here at Elephant Mountain Wildlife Management Area.

So, the story highlights, what does a biologist do at a Wildlife Management area?

I do just about anything that needs to be done.

And it’s incredibly diverse.

I’m responsible for conducting the baseline inventories on the property, which entails monitoring all the animal and plant life to the extent possible.

All the way up to capturing and transferring Desert Bighorn Sheep from one area to another to help repopulate.

The original herd of Bighorns were brought here in 1987 – we had 20 that were released here. And, in the last few years, those numbers have reached over a hundred animals.

He’s just a very well-balanced, interesting, educated guy.

I’m very lucky to be able not only work here, but also live here. It’s literally a chance of a lifetime for a wildlife biologist.

So, our goal is to expand their territory here in the park and have a unique experience to where you come in the park you are in the habitat with the bison.

The day they opened up the new pasture, I was at ground level looking into the gate where those bison were coming out. The experience of being at eye level with the bison as they’re charging towards you into this new pasture was just really awe inspiring.

These magnificent animals, the last remnants of the great southern plains bison…these animals belong to the state of Texas. They’re your animals. It’s a great opportunity to come view these animals –the last of their kind –as we do our best to expand their range and grow the herd.

My real passion is to get people back into our parks. I think they’re such valuable places in Texas.

And what he does is get people back into our state parks that have already taken a workshop with us; we’ve taught them how to camp, how to put up a tent – all these things you can do at most of our state parks. And once you register with a workshop, you get an ID, and we can find out if you come back to a park. And Chris says, based on the information they’ve gathered so far, there’s a 40% return. So, that’s outstanding; and that’s why he won an award.

He’s probably the best thing the British have ever given to the United States.

This is our 25th year going to Mexico.

Texas A&M University has been studying the waters off the coast of the Yucatan, and the waters off the Texas coast, and comparing down to a very small genetic level the fish and the coral.

What we’re just really looking for is trying to get genetic evidence that supports that the current that comes out of the Caribbean into the Gulf of Mexico is the ultimate source of populations in the Gulf of Mexico.

I followed Texas A & M to the Caribbean waters off the coast of the Yucatan. They were doing studies on a couple kinds of fish and a couple kinds of coral. Taking samples. Then they came back up here to Texas to our coral reef – the Flower Garden Bank – which is a hundred miles of the Texas Louisiana Border. And they took the exact same species of samples from there, compared them, and sure enough at a genetic level they are absolutely identical.

We have two different alleles for this gene, and it’s found in all three sites, which means that these three sites are, in fact, interconnected – that there is genetic exchange that takes place. There really is a Caribbean connection.