Deer in Maryland After graduating from Johns Hopkins, Flyger worked as a research biologist for the state of Maryland at their
Chesapeake Biological Laboratory in
Solomons, Maryland. He collected extensive data on deer, which assisted in regulating the
white-tailed deer population in the state. His methods of analyzing the deer population are still considered foundational in deer management in the state. Flyger also developed the use of a syringe gun (the "
Cap-Chur Gun") which would sedate the deer for transfer and study. In the late 1950s, hunters in Maryland were clamoring for more deer, while, at the same time, the
Aberdeen Proving Ground had an overabundance of deer. Using the Cap-Chur Gun and traps, Flyger and his colleagues transferred 1500 white-tailed deer from the Aberdeen Proving Ground into the northern areas of the state where there were little or no deer. Although the hunters were pleased with the restocking, the farmers began experiencing trouble with deer eating their crops. Flyger then developed a method he had learned in the Army during
WWII to scare off the deer by setting up strings of
M80s, which proved very effective. However, some
poachers had their fingers blown off, so the method was abandoned, though Flyger continued to believe that this system had merit.
Polar expeditions His work with the syringe tipped arrows in Maryland led Flyger to believe that it might be a useful tool with larger mammals. A Norwegian company gave him the funds to travel to the Arctic to test his equipment on whales. He spent two summers in the Arctic (around
Kendall Island in the Northwest Territory) with the
Inuit, adapting the devices so that they could function in the extreme cold and be able to penetrate the skin and blubber layers of the whale. In 1966, Flyger and Dr. Martin Schein, traveled to the Arctic Research Laboratory in
Point Barrow, Alaska, to use the sedation guns on polar bears so that they could be tagged or marked for research about their numbers and movements. The following year, Flyger traveled with an international team of scientists to
Svalbard, Norway. At the time of these expeditions, the
National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) was interested in utilizing satellites for tracking polar bears, so Flyger and Schein experimented with placing collars (simulating transmitters) on the bears. However, in the end, NASA underwent funding cuts, and the satellite tracking never happened with the polar bears.
Squirrel Studies Following his graduation from Cornell, Flyger worked as a game biologist for the state of Maryland, and began his research with squirrels. This led to the discovery that half of the females being killed during the hunting season were either pregnant or nursing. Flyger recommended that the squirrel hunting season be delayed into October, and this has been the schedule since the 1950s. In 1968, the
Smithsonian Institution formed the
Center for Short-Lived Phenomena, which was established to study short-lived natural phenomena such as earthquakes, volcanoes, and other unusual ecological events. Flyger requested to be notified by the Center of any squirrel migrations and, soon after, was informed about an unusual squirrel migration occurring from North Carolina into Tennessee. This was one of the first events in which the center became involved. Flyger examined several hundreds of squirrel carcasses found in the area and wrote his
doctoral dissertation on the subject. He determined that the "migration" was a result of a rise in squirrel births which happened to coincide with a poor acorn crop, causing them to seek food in unfamiliar territories. Flyger devised a number of marking systems for tracking the movements of squirrels in both urban and rural environments, including the use of radio collars. He created nesting boxes to facilitate the study of squirrels along with many feeding devices that challenged the squirrels' intelligence, memory, and agility. He was well known for distributing "wanted" posters throughout the countryside requesting that road-kill squirrels be sent to the Natural Resources Institute at the
University of Maryland, College Park, where he was Chair of the Department of Forestry, Fish and Wildlife. Unfortunately, some people took it upon themselves to mail dead carcasses through the Post Office. However, these and other squirrels that he collected over a half-century provided valuable information about diseases, parasites, population, environmental factors, among other findings. Flyger's decades of research on squirrels included the endangered
Delmarva fox squirrel and
flying squirrels. His work with flying squirrels was the subject of a
BBC documentary.
Educator In 1962, Flyger became a faculty member at the University of Maryland's Natural Resources Institute. In addition to his research, he taught at the University for 25 years. He was a well-respected and popular professor at the University, who inspired many students to enter the field of
wildlife conservation and mentored many young professionals. One of Flyger's most significant contributions to the field may have been his ability to educate the public about wildlife in an engaging, informative and interesting manner. Flyger was also known for his quick wit and dry humor, and was often interviewed by newspapers, magazines, and other media. The backyard of his home in
Silver Spring, Maryland, opened into parkland, which made it a refuge for squirrels and other wildlife. Even after his retirement, when he became an emeritus professor, it was the site of on-going research, interviews and documentaries. He was interviewed by the
National Wildlife Federation,
National Geographic, and the BBC in this wooded setting. == References ==