Levi Heffelfinger, Ph.D.

Professional Summary

Dr. Levi Heffelfinger is the Director of the North Texas Research Program and an Assistant Professor at the Caesar Kleberg Wildlife Research Institute at Texas A&M University-Kingsville. He is remotely stationed in Lubbock, TX, and also serves as an instructor for the Department of Natural Resources Management at Texas Tech University. Levi grew up with an early influence in wildlife science in southern Arizona and earned his bachelor’s degree from the University of Arizona. His M.S. degree from University of Nevada, Reno involved evaluating the spatial ecology and modeling demographics of mule deer amid arid environmental constraints on the Mojave National Preserve in southern California. Levi received a Ph.D. with the Caesar Kleberg Wildlife Research Institute at Texas A&M University-Kingsville and served as the Boone & Crockett Fellow in Ungulate Research. His doctoral research focused on modeling the influence of spatio-temporal fluctuations in forage on mule deer movement and population performance and experimentally evaluating the influence of early life nutrition on ontogeny and reproductive output in white-tailed deer. His current research focuses on nutritional ecology and connecting population metrics to landscape variability. Much of his work involves large mammal conservation issues throughout arid regions including the southwestern United States and the southern Great Plains.

Publications

Turnley, M. T., W. S. Fairbanks, R. C. Lonsinger, M. J. Cherry, M. M. Dart, R. W. DeYoung, D. P. Hahn, L. J. Heffelfinger, C. M. J. Rickels, E. P. Tanner, H. G. Wang, and M. C. Chitwood. In Press.  Harmless tags or hazardous ads? Investigating the potential for ear tags to increase predation on neonatal ungulates. Canadian Journal of Zoology.

Ellis, C. C., M. J. Cherry, S. S. Gray, R. W. DeYoung, D. G. Hewitt, and L. J. Heffelfinger. 2025. Early-life movement ecology of a cervid: Implications for chronic wasting disease management. LINK

Heffelfinger, L. J., D. G. Hewitt, J. P. Vasquez, T. E. Fulbright, R. W. DeYoung, L. A. Harveson, W. C. Conway, and S. S. Gray. 2025. Cropland restricts occurrence and alters spatial ecology near the mule deer geographical range limit. LINK

Dart, M. M., M. T. Turnley, C. M. J. Rickels, E. P. Tanner, M. C. Chitwood, R. W. DeYoung, W. S. Fairbanks, D. P. Hahn, L. J. Heffelfinger, R. C. Lonsinger, H. G. Wang, M. J. Cherry. 2025. Predator-induced injury of a neonatal pronghorn cues abandonment of current reproductive investment. LINK

Reeves, A. M., S. S. Gray, J. C. Campbell, L. A. Harveson, C. D. Hilton, L. J. Heffelfinger, C. M. Springer, D. G. Hewitt, W. C. Conway, and R. O. Dittmar II. 2024. Hematology and Biochemical Reference Intervals and Seroprevalence of Hemorrhagic Disease for Free-Ranging Mule Deer (Odocoileus hemionus) in West Texas. LINK.

Heffelfinger, L. J. (2024), Book Review: Sexual Segregation in Ungulates: Ecology, Behavior, and Conservation. R. Terry Bowyer. 2022. LINK.

Heffelfinger, L. J., and J. R. Heffelfinger. 2023. Physical Characteristics. In K. R. Krausman and J. R. Heffelfinger (Eds.), Ecology and Management of Black-tailed Deer and Mule Deer in North America. LINK

Lindbloom, A., P. Bauman, A. Foster, L. Fox, S. Gray, L. J. Heffelfinger, L. Meduna, and S. Stevens. 2023. Great Plains Ecoregion. In K. R. Krausman and J. R. Heffelfinger (Eds.), Ecology and Management of Black-tailed Deer and Mule Deer in North America. LINK

Heffelfinger, L. J., D. G. Hewitt, R. W. DeYoung, T. E. Fulbright, L. A. Harveson, W. C. Conway, S. S. Gray. 2023. Shifting Agriculture and a Depleting Aquifer: Implications of Row-Crop Farming on Mule Deer Population Performance. LINK

Blackburn, A., L. J. Heffelfinger, A. M. Veals, M. E. Tewes, and J. H. Young Jr. 2021. Cats, Cars, and Crossings: The Consequences of Road Networks Towards the Conservation of an Endangered Felid. LINK

Heffelfinger, L. J., K. M. Stewart, K. T. Shoemaker, N. W. Darby, and V. C. Bleich. 2020. Balancing Current and Future Reproductive Investment: Variation in Resource Selection During Stages of Reproduction in a Long-Lived Herbivore. LINK

Heffelfinger, L. J., K. M. Stewart, A. P. Bush, J. S. Sedinger, and V. C. Bleich. 2018. Timing of Precipitation in an Arid Environment: Effects on Population Performance of a Large Herbivore. LINK

Shoemaker, K. T., L. J. Heffelfinger, N. J. Jackson, M. E. Blum, T. Wasley and K. M. Stewart. 2018. A Machine-learning Approach for Extending Classical Wildlife Resource Selection Analyses. LINK