For over 30 years, the Chihuahuan Desert Research Institute has supported research in the region and the Chihuahuan Desert Nature Center has served as a field station for biological research. In addition to long-term research projects, we welcome university field classes. For more information about conducting research at the Nature Center or bringing your class, contact Dr. Cathryn Hoyt, Executive Director at 432.364.2499 or choyt [at] cdri [dot] org.

Current Research Projects

Butterfly Monitoring Projects
Butterfly diversity in the northern Chihuahuan Desert is extraordinary. Over 90 species have been documented on the 507-acre Chihuahuan Desert Nature Center alone (compare this with the 133 species found in the entire state of Ohio!). For several years, CDRI staff and citizen scientists have conducted butterfly surveys to compile a list of the butterflies found at the Nature Center and in the Davis Mountains region. Now we want to do more. FULL STORY

Dung Beetles of of the Big Bend Region of the Chihuahuan Desert.
For over five years, Dr. Dave Edmunds has been conducting a long-term study of the dung beetle fauna of the northern Chihuahuan Desert. The Nature Center serves as one of Dr. Edmunds’ collection and field observation sites. FULL STORY

Grassland Birds of the Chihuahuan Desert Region
Grassland birds are on the decline and the Rocky Mountain Bird Observatory (RMBO) wants to know why. Twenty-nine species of grassland birds overwinter in the grasslands of the Chihuahuan Desert. In 1996, the RMBO began a long-term project to better understand the distribution and habitat associations of grassland birds wintering in the Chihuahuan Desert region. They identified Grassland Priority Conservation Areas and developed a wintering grassland bird survey and monitoring program.

In 2009, the RMBO expanded their studies to include the grasslands of west Texas, southern New Mexico, southern Chihuahua, and northeast Sonora. Sul Ross State University graduate student Miguel Angel Grageda is collecting data from the Chihuahuan Desert Nature Center grasslands as part of this binational effort. His research involves regular surveys of the grasslands including a visual survey of the birds and an estimation of the vegatative cover.

Hummingbirds of the Northern Chihuahuan Desert
Ornithologist Kelly Bryan is conducting a long-term study of hummingbirds in the northern Chihuahuan Desert. In 2009, he established a banding station at the Nature Center to be used as one of his research sites. Between May and September, 111 hummingbirds representing 6 species were banded. For more information about this research project be sure to browse Kelly’s website The Hummingbirds of West Texas.

Recent Projects

Predation and the Evolution of Color Polymorphism in the Mottled Rock Rattlesnake (Crotalus lepidus lepidus)
Vincent Farallo, a master’s student at Texas State University-San Marcos, set out 40 model snakes made of urethane foam on a rocky hillside at the Nature Center to investigate predator strikes based on snake color polymorphism associated with two distinct rock substrate types separated by a lowland desert. His study was presented as a Master’s Thesis, submitted in December 2009.

Native Pollinators at the Nature Center
In 2006 and 2007, Sul Ross State University Department of Biology graduate student Cynthia McAlister collected and identified insect pollinators from the northern Chihuahuan Desert region, using the Chihuahuan Desert Nature Center’s Botanical Gardens as a study site. Insects were netted and trapped, then pinned and identified. The specimens are housed in SRSU’s Jim V. Richerson Invertebrate Collection. A goal of this project was to survey insect pollinators in general, and native bees specifically, in order to create a baseline list of insects to be used in future studies. Additionally, ongoing work will compare native bee species diversity within the Botanical Gardens to diversity found in natural grassland areas.

Past Projects

Peregrine and Aplomado Falcons
Researchers at the Chihuahuan Desert Research Institute played a significant role in the efforts to bring Peregrine Falcons back from the edge of extinction. They also hatched the first Aplomado Falcons bred in captivity and studied a variety of other little-known Mexican birds. FULL STORY