2 
OCCASIONAL PAPERS, MUSEUM OF TEXAS TECH UNIVERSITY 
peratures usually vary between 1.7°C and about 16°C 
(Kutac and Caran, 1994). Average annual rainfall for Fort 
Hood is 74 cm (ETAC, 1970). 
Fort Hood Military Reservation is situated in the 
Brazos River Basin on the boundary of two major physi¬ 
ographic regions: the Comanche Plateau to the west and 
the Gulf Coastal Plain to the south. From north to south, 
the major drainages are the Leon River, Owl Creek, 
Cowhouse Creek, North Nolan Creek, and Reese Creek. 
All of these, with the exception of Reese Creek and North 
Nolan Creek, flow into Belton Lake. Of these, Cowhouse 
Creek is the major drainage on the reservation 
(Severinghaus et ah, 1980; Department of the Army, 
1979). 
Fort Hood houses two military divisions, the First 
Cavalry Division and the Second Armored Division, and 
also serves as the major training area for the Forty-Ninth 
Armored Division, a division of the TexasNational Guard, 
as well as several reserve units. Total tracked vehicles 
utilized for training are in excess of2,500 (Goran et aL, 
1983). Of the 878 km 2 (217,000 acres) comprising Fort 
Hood, 533 km 2 (131,704 acres) are used for maneuver 
training activities and another 251 km 2 (62,000 acres) 
for live-fire training. Collectively, these areas account 
for 784 km 2 or ca. 89% of Fort Hood’s property (De¬ 
partment of the Army, 1979; Miller-Talley Associates 
andEspey Huston and Associates, Inc., 1978). 
A series of Army Corp of Engineers Construction 
Engineering Research Laboratory (CERL) reports 
(Severinghaus et al., 1979, 1980, 1981; Goran et ah, 
1983) have assessed ecological differences between 
selected tracked vehicle training areas and areas repre¬ 
senting pre-training (i.e., no training) conditions. These 
reports focus on the major components of the terres¬ 
trial and aquatic ecosystems in an attempt to quantify 
cause and effect relationships between army activities 
and their impact on ecosystems. Although the effects of 
training activities on mammals are included in the re¬ 
ports, the primary focus was placed on small mammal 
communities. Medium-sized and large mammals were 
documented as present or absent, but no analyses were 
conducted to determine possible effects on their popu¬ 
lations from military training maneuvers (Severinghaus 
etah, 1979,1981; Goran et ah, 1983). 
CERL reports by Severinghaus et ah (1980,1981) 
included information on the effects of tactical vehicle 
activity on the mammals, birds, and vegetation at Fort 
Hood, Texas. These reports included a list of mammals 
(including medium-sized mammal species) whose known 
geographic ranges included the Fort Hood area as well 
as a checklist of those species observed during the study 
period. Severinghaus et ah (1980) included an inventory 
of medium-sized mammals observed while trapping for 
small mammals and via a 64-km nocturnal road-cruise 
census. Additional information on medium-sized mam¬ 
mals was obtained through the Fort Hood Fish and Wild¬ 
life Division in the form of a 64-km diurnal road-cruise 
census for white-tailed deer ( Odocoileus virginianus ) 
and harvest records for furbearing mammal species (e.g. 
raccoon, Procyon lotor; opossum, Didelphis virginiana ; 
gray fox, Urocyon cmereoargenteus; coyote, Cams 
latrans and others). 
Studies of the medium-sized mammals of Fort 
Hood include a cursory report compiled in 1978 (Miller- 
Talley and Associates and Espey Huston and Associates, 
Inc.) and a mammal survey on land condition trend plots 
by Baumgardner (1990). The first study was based on a 
literature search of mammal species whose distributional 
range includes Fort Hood. This report was initiated to 
provide information on mammals for the environmental 
impact statement issued by the Department of the Army 
(1979) for Fort Hood. Baumgardner (1990) integrated 
a mammal inventory into the Construction Engineering 
Research Lab's Land Condition Trend Analysis (LCTA) 
Program. Results from his study were combined with a 
previous study (Severinghaus and Goran, 1982) to pro¬ 
duce a species list of all small and medium-sized mam¬ 
mals known to occur on the Fort Hood Military Post. 
Although medium-sized mammals were included in the 
report, the primaiy focus of the study was placed on nap¬ 
ping and documenting small mammal species. 
Due to the absence of information regarding the 
effects of long-term military activities on medium-sized 
mammal species, a need exists for accurate methods 
which can be used for monitoring these populations. In¬ 
formation gained through such studies can be integrated 
into LCTA programs to provide army land managers with 
additional natural resource data for input into land use 
management planning. Environmental impact studies 
(such as the study detailed herein) provide means for 
obtaining data on impacts on natural environments and 
wild populations. For the purposes of this study, me¬ 
dium-sized mammals include the carnivores, opossum, 
