The Conway Coalition
Chris Carter
Ph. D. Student
Texas Tech University
Distribution and quality of surface water for desert bighorn sheep in the Trans Pecos of Texas: implications for habitat use, disease risks, and sheep survival in a changing landscape
Chris is a Lubbock native that grew up on the South Plains and received his Bachelor of Biology from Lubbock Christian University. After working for twenty years in healthcare as a Medical Technologist, he began to transition into the wildlife management field in 2015 when he began working towards a Master of Science at Texas Tech. His thesis covered mesocarnivore occurrence within the city of Lubbock and the relationships with landscape cover and other natural and anthropogenic factors potentially affecting occupancy, and he graduated in 2019. In 2022, he left the healthcare industry behind to pursue his Ph.D. full time. His current research is focused on surface water microbe communities and water quality in the Trans-Pecos region, specifically as it relates to potential disease transmission risks to Bighorn Sheep. Chris hopes to continue his career with ongoing wildlife disease research, wherever that may take him.