Duane Diefenbach

Adjunct Professor of Wildlife Ecology

Duane Diefenbach

Research Summary

Wildlife ecology, estimation of population parameters, and harvest management of game populations.

Huck Graduate Students

Huck Affiliations

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News Articles Featuring Duane Diefenbach

Oct 22, 2024

Deer, seedlings and soil pH influence local forest regeneration

New findings from long-term research underscore the challenges managers face when trying to conserve Penn’s Woods.

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Oct 16, 2023

Deer Are Everywhere, but We Barely Know Them

A decade-old research project in Pennsylvania has been revealing the secret lives of familiar woodland mammals

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Jun 05, 2022

Bear encounters have more than doubled this year in N.J.

A woman attacked by a bear while checking her mail in May. Two small dogs mauled to death in their backyards weeks apart in January. It’s been a rough start for bear encounters in New Jersey, with a number of prominent incidents happening in the northernmost counties.

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May 31, 2022

Number of deer hunters is in decline, posing serious questions about future of deer management

As large numbers of hunters age out of the sport without enough newcomers to replenish the ranks, state wildlife agencies will need to consider new ways to manage deer populations and to find the money to pay for wildlife conservation, according to a leading deer researcher at Penn State.

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May 10, 2022

Future of deer management clouded by coming steep decline in hunter numbers

Because so many deer hunters are aging out of the sport — and new hunters are not being recruited to replace them — deer management strategies will need to change to manage populations of whitetails in many states.

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May 05, 2022

People are seeing more black bears in Ferguson and across PA this spring. Here’s why

Ferguson Township police are experiencing an uptick in calls from residents reporting black bear sightings, so much so the department is asking locals to make sure they don’t leave out food for the hungry hibernators.

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Feb 18, 2021

Unique study of isolated bobcat population confirms accuracy of extinction model

The reintroduction of 32 bobcats to an island off the coast of Georgia more than three decades ago created an ideal experiment to examine the accuracy of a genetic-modeling technique that predicts extinction of isolated wildlife populations.

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Jan 11, 2021

Levels of stress hormone in saliva of newborn deer fawns may predict mortality

The first-ever study of the levels of the stress hormone cortisol in the saliva of newborn white-tailed deer fawns yielded thought-provoking results that have Penn State researchers suggesting predation is not the only thing in the wild killing fawns.

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Oct 29, 2020

Penn State researcher defends deer antler point harvest restrictions

For more than 80 years, young Pennsylvania bucks have been protected by an antler point restriction banning the harvest of deer with spikes shorter than 3 inches. In the last 20 years, additional antler restrictions were imposed to ensure that male deer live long enough to breed.

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Nov 03, 2018

Why knowing the science behind the rut can help bowhunters this season

The rut, the mating period for white-tailed deer, is upon us. It is the time of year that bowhunters look forward to, beginning in late October and lasting about a month.

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