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Biology Prof Featured in Texas Parks & Wildlife Magazine

June 02, 2016

Dr. Robert Dowler, a professor of biology at Angelo State University, is the subject of a feature article in the June 2016 issue of Texas Parks & Wildlife magazine about his extensive research on the various species of skunks in Texas.

The article has actually been in the works for nearly two years as the writer, Russell Roe, and a photographer accompanied Dowler and his research students in the field to gather the needed details and photos. 

Also curator of mammals for the Angelo State Natural History Collections, Dowler is a leading skunk researcher and oversees one of the world’s largest collections of skunk specimens in the ASNHC. He regularly mentors both undergraduate and graduate ASU student research projects, mainly concentrating on the skunks of West Texas. His current team is in the process of surveying 10 sites to gauge the range of the eastern spotted skunk in the state. 

Dr. Robert Dowler Dr. Robert Dowler To conduct his research, Dowler has received grants and funding from the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department, Texas Comptroller’s Office, Texas National Guard, James A. “Buddy” Davidson Charitable Foundation, National Science Foundation and National Geographic Society, among others. His research efforts have also taken him to the East Indies, Guyana, Ecuador and Australia, as well as the Galapagos Islands, where he and his team of students discovered a rodent species thought to be extinct for nearly a century. 

Also widely published, Dowler has contributed articles to numerous biology and mammalogy journals, including The Southwestern Naturalist, Journal of Wildlife Management, Journal of Wildlife Disease, Journal of Mammalogy and Texas Journal of Science, as well as to “The Smithsonian Book of North American Mammals.”

In June 2015, Dowler received the Joseph Grinnell Award for Excellence in Education from the American Society of Mammalogists. He has also earned previous teaching and research excellence awards from the ASU Faculty Senate and ASU Alumni Association, the Packard Outstanding Educator Award from the Southwestern Association of Naturalists, and the Chancellor’s Council Distinguished Research Award from the Texas Tech University System. 

Dowler holds a bachelor’s degree in natural resources from Ohio State University, a master’s degree in museum science from Texas Tech University and a Ph.D. in wildlife and fisheries science from Texas A&M University.