Around the
summer of 2003 in the La Sal Mountains of Utah, mule deer began to turn into
zombies.
Or, at
least they began to act like zombies. They started losing weight, salivated
constantly, and began to walk in listless circles. They grew apathetic and then
stopped running from humans.
At first
only a few sick animals turned up in annual surveys of harvested deer, but the
numbers grew. Testing confirmed the fears of wildlife managers, Chronic Wasting
Disease or CWD. The prion disease produces lesions in the brain that change the
animals' behavior. “We call them zombie deer,” says Martha Garlick, PhD, SD
Mines math professor.
At first
CWD shows no symptoms. It progresses over the course of a few years, but once
contracted it’s always fatal. CWD is highly contagious and it has ravaged deer
and elk populations across the American West.
Understanding
the rate of spread is crucial to stopping any disease. This is where Garlick’s work comes
in, she is teamed up with wildlife biologists, mathematicians, and
statisticians at Utah State University and Colorado State University. The team
is part of a National Science Foundation grant to improve computer models that
can help predict how animal populations move.
“I love math anyway, but, it’s
really cool to actually apply this to something real world. It’s exciting to
predict things about animal movement that will help wildlife managers who car...