Monteith Shop

Big news!! We're teaming up with the Muley Fanatic Foundation for a night you do not want to miss! Join us for Echoes of the Tracks, an incredible fundraising event celebrating over a decade of groundbreaking research on mule deer, bighorn sheep, moose, and Wyoming's other iconic big animals, with special guest Randy Newberg!
WHEN: April 11th, 2026
WHERE: Marian H. Rochelle Gateway, 222 S 22nd Street, Laramie
Doors open at 4pm

Enjoy a delicious dinner, get in on the games, raffles, and giveaways, and bid on incredible items in our silent and live auctions, all while connecting with people who care about Wyoming's wildlife. Every dollar raised goes directly toward our research and the Muley Fanatic Foundation mission, and supporting this event is one of the best ways you can help that work continue.

Can't make it to Laramie? The live auction is available online right now and you can bid from anywhere. Check it out here: https://www.onlinehuntingauctions.com/Muley-Fanatic-Foundation-2026-Live-Auction_as112022

Also back for a second year is the 7220 Raffle for a 2026 Wyoming Commissioner's License; 1 ticket for $100 or 5 for $307. Grab yours here: https://muleyfanaticshop.org/products/7220-raffle-wyoming-commissioners-license-copy

For tickets and more information, visit: https://26EchoesTracks.givesmart.com
Enjoy a delicious dinner, get in on the games, raffles, and giveaways, and bid on incredible items in our silent and live auctions, all while connecting with people who care about Wyoming's wildlife. Every dollar raised goes directly toward our research and the Muley Fanatic Foundation mission, and supporting this event is one of the best ways you can help that work continue.

Mule Deer Days is always a great chance to connect with the people who care deeply about mule deer and the landscapes they depend on.

If you’re coming through, stop by and say hello! We’re always happy to talk wildlife, research, field stories, or whatever mule deer questions you’ve been wondering about lately.

We’ll also have some new Monteith Shop stickers, bandanas, and a few other things at the booth, not to mention a First Lite kit we’ll be raffling off during the event. Hope to see you there!

While the countdown to Christmas is nearly over, we're just about a month away with our countdown to Sheep Show!!

Nearly each year (weather on I-80 permitting), the Monteith Shop takes a road trip to Reno, Nevada for Wild Sheep Foundation's () Annual Sheep Show!

It's a crazy couple of days full of sheep research talk, meeting new people, and the Youth Wildlife Conservation Experience! We're already gearing up for this year... hope we see you there!

What does December mean to you? For many of us, the end of the year is a very busy time, full of time with family, wrapping up year-end goals, Christmas shopping, and more. For the Monteith Shop, it's capture season, as well!

Most of the Shop are out of office this week, and not on vacation: we're on the ground in western Wyoming catching our study animals for our long-term studies. This is all-hands-on-deck work: regardless of what project each member of the Shop is running, they all help with captures.

This year for the Wyoming Range in particular, we have a lot of deer to catch, since so many of the fawns and juveniles from the last couple of years have survived. Wish us good luck and good weather!

Do you want to support research and have a really fun time while you do?

We in the Shop and The Muley Fanatic Foundation are super excited to invite you to an exciting night dedicated to Wyoming’s wildlife heritage! Come enjoy an evening packed with fun, food, and conservation, as we celebrate over a decade of groundbreaking research on mule deer, bighorn sheep, moose, and our other big animals with special guest, Randy Newberg!

🌟 What to Expect:
✅ Games, raffles, and giveaways
✅ Silent and live auctions featuring incredible items
✅ Engaging insights into Wyoming’s iconic wildlife
✅ A delicious dinner provided by UW Catering & Events
✅Guest appearance by Randy Newberg

Don't miss this chance to support wildlife conservation, connect with fellow outdoor enthusiasts, and learn about the incredible animals that call Wyoming home. Doors open early at 4 PM—bring your friends and family for a night to remember! Kids 10 and under are free!

We'll have more information as we near the event, but we wanted to get our Save the Date out ASAP!! Get your tickets now—spaces are limited! Link in the QR code!

Please welcome to the Shop: undergraduate researcher Hannah Qualm!

Hannah is a junior here at the University of Wyoming studying Wildlife & Fisheries Biology & Management and Environment & Natural Resources. Hannah has been acquainted with the Shop as a Wyoming Wildlife Fellow for a while, but now Hannah is diving into a research project with current Shop research scientist, Rebecca Levine.

With funding from the Wyoming Research Scholars Program, Hannah is processing and analyzing camera collar videos of moose near Meeteetse, Wyoming, to study the activity budgets and behavioral states of female moose. She will be working to analyze how time spent foraging, bedded, ruminating, standing and traveling differs between mom moose and non-mom, female moose.

We in the Shop are always super excited to get to work with exceptional undergraduate students like Hannah, and we're really excited to see where her research project goes!

We in the Shop would just like to take a moment on this holiday weekend to express our sincere gratitude to all of you: followers, funders, collaborators, family members, and beyond. None of this is possible without all of you. We get to do the coolest job in the world (in our opinion), and we get to do it because there are so many people out there helping us make it possible.

If you’ve spent any time outside, you’ve probably felt a microclimate, like the cool air beneath a shady tree, even when the rest of the day feels unbearably hot.

Wildlife depend on these same tiny differences. For moose, heat is a big challenge. Their large bodies, dark coats, and inability to sweat make them prone to overheating. To cope, they seek thermal refuge—places that help them stay cool, like shaded willow stands or wet ground that draws heat from their bodies. Riparian zones are critical for moose, not only for food but possibly for the cooler conditions they offer.
To understand how beavers might shape these cool refuges, the Beaver-Ungulate Interactions Project spent the summer collecting fine-scale climate data across 12 riparian sites in western Wyoming.

At each site, we placed 20 Kestrel weather meters measuring temperature, humidity, and wind from the stream edge to the floodplain. We rotated them across sites with a gradient of beaver activity, from large active ponds to incised channels, from June to September, capturing the hottest months of the year. We also measured soil moisture and canopy cover to see how shade and water interact to create pockets of thermal refuge.

Next up: analyzing more than 480,000 weather measurements to see how beaver-modified habitats might keep things cooler for moose during Wyoming’s warming summers.

In the photo, MS student Ty Hults () helps place and position a Kestrel sensor this summer. Photos 2 & 3 show a beaver dam in riparian habitat and riparian habitat featuring a Kestrel sensor.

Welcome, October!!

As the leaves change and the fall blows in on the chilling winds, we turn our attentions away from the vibrant greens and purples of the summer range wildflowers and towards the silvery green of the sagebrush and the burnt colors of the leaves surrounding us.

For most of the month, members of the Shop will be carefully measuring sagebrush leaders (yes, individual lengths of this year's growth) to help us in our larger study of the Wyoming Range Mule Deer and the places they make home!

One of the aspects of our new Moose Habitat project is lots and lots of vegetation work, including a hefty sampling of willows. Just within our study area, we have SIX willow species to learn to identify.

Thankfully, master's student Becky Barbier has designed for us a pamphlet to help us tell each species apart, and we've turned it into a quiz for you!

See if you can identify each willow species in the slides!!

Welcome to a day in the life of the Shop's new Beaver-Ungulate Interactions Project!

This project includes a lot of habitat work, and below, you can see techs Allison and Emily (if you missed their tech features, review our last handful of posts!) positioning a Kestrel sensor along a creek. This project spends a lot of days in waders, placing Kestrel sensors, looking for beaver activity, and more.

This project is a little different than a lot of the work we've done before, and we're really excited to share some of it with you as we get it running! Stay tuned for more updates from the field 👀