Mule Deer (Odocoileus Hemionus) Movement and Habitat Use Patterns in Relation to Roadways in Northwest Wyoming

Mule Deer (Odocoileus Hemionus) Movement and Habitat Use Patterns in Relation to Roadways in Northwest Wyoming PDF Author: Corinna Riginos
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Mule deer
Languages : en
Pages : 72

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"The purpose of this study was to provide the Wyoming Department of Transportation and Wyoming Game and Fish Department with useful information about the patterns of mule deer seasonal habitat use, migration, road crossings, and wildlife-vehicle collisions in the Jackson Hole area."-- page i.

Mule Deer (Odocoileus Hemionus) Movement and Habitat Use Patterns in Relation to Roadways in Northwest Wyoming

Mule Deer (Odocoileus Hemionus) Movement and Habitat Use Patterns in Relation to Roadways in Northwest Wyoming PDF Author: Corinna Riginos
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Mule deer
Languages : en
Pages : 72

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Book Description
"The purpose of this study was to provide the Wyoming Department of Transportation and Wyoming Game and Fish Department with useful information about the patterns of mule deer seasonal habitat use, migration, road crossings, and wildlife-vehicle collisions in the Jackson Hole area."-- page i.

Habitat Use and Migration Ecology of Mule Deer in Developing Gas Fields of Western Wyoming

Habitat Use and Migration Ecology of Mule Deer in Developing Gas Fields of Western Wyoming PDF Author: Hall Sawyer
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781124300870
Category : Energy development
Languages : en
Pages : 108

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Book Description
Increased levels of energy development across the intermountain West have created a variety of wildlife and habitat management concerns. Because many of the energy resources in the region occur in shrub-dominated basins (e.g., Powder River, Piceance, Great Divide, and Green River basins), management concerns have focused on native shrub communities and associated species, including mule deer (Odocoileus hemionus). Two of the more pressing concerns are how mule deer respond when critical habitats (e.g., winter range) are impacted by development and how their migration routes can be identified and prioritized for conservation. To address the first, I examined how three types of natural gas well pads with varying levels of vehicle traffic influenced the winter habitat selection patterns of mule deer in western Wyoming. My results showed that mule deer avoided all types of well pads and selected areas further from well pads that received high levels of traffic. Accordingly, impacts to mule deer could likely be reduced through technology and planning that minimizes the number of well pads and amount of human activity associated with them. To address the migration concerns, I developed a quantitative framework that uses global positioning system (GPS) data and the Brownian bridge movement model (BBMM) to: (1) provide a probabilistic estimate of the migration routes of a sampled population, (2) distinguish between route segments that function as stopover sites versus those used primarily as movement corridors, and (3) prioritize routes for conservation based upon the proportion of the sampled population that uses them. Mule deer migration routes were characterized by a series of stopover sites where deer spent most of their time, connected by movement corridors through which deer moved quickly. These findings suggest management strategies that differentiate between stopover sites and movement corridors may be warranted. Because some migration routes were used by more mule deer than others, proportional level of use may provide a reasonable metric by which routes can be prioritized for conservation. Although stopovers appeared to be a prominent feature of mule deer migration routes, the explicit study of stopovers (i.e., stopover ecology) has been limited to avian species. To assess whether stopover ecology was relevant to mule deer, I again used fine-scale GPS data and BBMMs to quantify a suite of stopover characteristics and examine the ecological role of stopovers in the seasonal migrations of mule deer. Mule deer utilized a series of stopover sites in both spring and fall migrations, across a range of migration distances (18-144 km). Overall, mule deer used 1.9 and 1.5 stopovers for every 10 km increase in migration distance during spring and fall migrations, respectively. Stopovers had higher quality forage compared to movement corridors, and forage quality increased with elevation, presumably because of delayed phenology along the altitudinal migration route. Stopovers likely play a key role in the migration strategy of mule deer by allowing them to migrate in concert with vegetative phenology and optimize their foraging during migration. My results suggest stopovers were a critical component in the altitudinal migrations of mule deer and that conservation of stopover sites may improve efforts aimed at sustaining migratory mule deer populations.

Seasonal Distribution and Winter Habitat Use of Female Mule Deer (Odocoileus Hemionus) in the Copper Mountain Region, Wyoming

Seasonal Distribution and Winter Habitat Use of Female Mule Deer (Odocoileus Hemionus) in the Copper Mountain Region, Wyoming PDF Author: Jennifer Amy Allen
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Mule deer
Languages : en
Pages : 252

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Social and Scientific Factors Impacting Mule Deer Habitat Conservation in the Intermountain West

Social and Scientific Factors Impacting Mule Deer Habitat Conservation in the Intermountain West PDF Author: Nicholas F. Trulove
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781303150265
Category : Mule deer
Languages : en
Pages : 164

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Book Description
For mule deer (Odocoileus hemionus ) in the Intermountain West, alterations to habitat are outpacing strategies to mitigate human disturbance on critical seasonal ranges and migration routes. Conserving mule deer habitat requires cooperation between a diverse group of stakeholders, state wildlife agencies, and federal land management agencies. The first chapter of this thesis explores the current and historical relationship between state wildlife agencies, citizen stakeholders, and federal agencies in order to highlight opportunities to improve cooperative habitat conservation in the United States. Conservation is a result of social, political, and economic action, but relies upon science to inform policy. The second chapter explores the seasonal habitat use of mule deer in southwestern Wyoming. In response to low fawn recruitment, the Wyoming Game and Fish Department deployed 15 GPS collars on adult female mule deer in an effort to enhance knowledge of mule deer population dynamics, migrations, and habitat use. The study captured two winter climate regimes, with greater winter severity during the 2010-11 winter compared to the winter of 2011-12. Deer migrated an average of 23.9 km (SE = 2.2) between seasonal ranges, and completed spring migrations nearly one month earlier following the milder winter of 2011-12 ( t 19 = 5.53, df = 19, P ? 0.001). Pooled, the average area of winter ranges (1057 ha, SE = 103, n = 26) was larger than summer ranges (423 ha, SE = 51 ha, n = 25) (t = -5.44, df = 49, P ≤ 0.001), with no increase or decrease in size of seasonal ranges detected between years (P = 0.243) according to a post-hoc Tukey HSD test. Between years, deer were observed to shift the geographic center of winter ranges (2.9 km, SE = 1.1, n = 12) to a larger degree than summer ranges (0.4 km, SE = 0.1, n = 12) (t = -2.20, df = 22, P = 0.040). Survival and pregnancy rates (86% and 96%, respectively) correlated closely with other mule deer studies, and neither factor appears to negatively impact population growth. Identifying seasonal ranges and migration routes, and quantifying seasonal habitat use, will assist Wyoming Game and Fish Department efforts to protect mule deer seasonal habitats and migration routes, and direct vegetation manipulations intended to improve the nutritional quality of habitats. On average, winter ranges included a later percentage of shrub-dominated habitat (83.8%, SE = 0.3, n = 26) than summer ranges (57.5%, SE = 2.0, n = 25) (t = -4.42, df = 49, P ? 0.001). Summer ranges averaged a greater proportion of agricultural lands (2.8%, SE = 1.1, n = 25) and aspen (Populus tremuloides ) habitats (9.0%, SE = 2.2, n = 25) than winter ranges (0.1%, SE = 0.1, n = 26 and 0.2%, SE = 0.0, n = 26, respectively) (t = 3.03, df = 49, P = 0.004 and t = 3.86, df = 49, P ? 0.001, respectively). Mule deer ranges are primarily located on Bureau of Land Management (73%, SE = 2.8, n = 51) and privately owned (17.3%, SE = 2.9, n = 51) lands, highlighting opportunities for cooperative partnerships for mule deer habitat conservation.

Mule Deer Habitat Guides

Mule Deer Habitat Guides PDF Author: Richard M. Kerr
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Mammals
Languages : en
Pages : 70

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Mule Deer Mortality on Interstate 80 in Wyoming

Mule Deer Mortality on Interstate 80 in Wyoming PDF Author: Gregory A. Goodwin
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Mule deer
Languages : en
Pages : 4

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Energy, Fractal Movement Patterns, and Scale-Dependent Habitat Relationships of Urban and Rural Mule Deer

Energy, Fractal Movement Patterns, and Scale-Dependent Habitat Relationships of Urban and Rural Mule Deer PDF Author: Mark F McClure
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages :

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I studied the behaviors, movement dynamics, habitat relationships, and population characteristics of Rocky Mountain mule deer (Odocoileus hemionus) using urban and rural winter ranges in Cache Valley, Utah , from January 1994 to February 1998. There were 2 goals to my research endeavors. The first was to assess how and why the behaviors and demographic characteristics of urban deer differed from those of rural deer. The second was to assess the scale-dependent responses to habitat and the scale-dependent patterns of habitat use by deer living in each area. To accomplish the first goal, I compared the prevalence of migration, the spatial and temporal patterns of migration, and the spatial patterns of home range use between urban and rural deer. I also compared deer reproduction and population density in each area. I then explain how behavioral and demographic dissimilarities between urban and rural deer may have corresponded to differences in their net energetic gains (NEG) on seasonal ranges. These explanations, when combined graphically, generated a time-specific hypothesis of lower NEG by urban deer on a year-round basis. To accomplish the second goal, I developed new methodologies for analyzing animal movement pathways (which represent signatures of how animals respond to habitat), and animal patterns of habitat use . These methodologies explicitly incorporated the effects of spatial scale by employing fractal geometry and information theory. The results of these analyses showed that urban and rural deer responded to their habitats in similar ways at coarse resolutions of analysis (100-600 m), but differently at fine resolutions of analysis ( 4-60 m). I argue that similarities in habitat response at coarse resolutions reflected a common movement process that allowed deer maximize use of their home ranges while minimizing energetic expenditures. With respect to patterns of habitat use, urban deer concentrated in areas with concealment vegetation , which was highly fragmented across all resolutions of analysis. Rural deer, on the other hand, dispersed throughout areas containing shrubby vegetation at fine resolutions, and south-facing slopes at coarse resolutions. Interpretation of these results is discussed in detail.

Wild Mammals of North America

Wild Mammals of North America PDF Author: George A. Feldhamer
Publisher: JHU Press
ISBN: 9780801874161
Category : Nature
Languages : en
Pages : 1250

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Home Range and Movement of Five Mule Deer in a Semidesert Grass-shrub Community

Home Range and Movement of Five Mule Deer in a Semidesert Grass-shrub Community PDF Author: Kenneth J. Rodgers
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Mule deer
Languages : en
Pages : 8

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Seasonal Movements, Population Characteristics and Habitat Use of Mule Deer in the Shirley Mountain Area, Central Wyoming

Seasonal Movements, Population Characteristics and Habitat Use of Mule Deer in the Shirley Mountain Area, Central Wyoming PDF Author: Gregory W. McDaniel
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Deer populations
Languages : en
Pages : 128

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