U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

icon-dot-gov

Official websites use .gov
A .gov website belongs to an official government organization in the United States.

icon-https

Secure .gov websites use HTTPS
A lock ( ) or https:// means you’ve safely connected to the .gov website. Share sensitive information only on official, secure websites.

Spatial Extent of Data

USGS Data Source

Migration Routes of Mule Deer in Owl Creek Mountains Herd in Wyoming

Mule deer (Odocoileus hemionus) along the Owl Creek Mountains display both a longitudinal and altitudinal migration as they depart the northern section of the Wind River Indian Reservation (fig. 28). Deer in this trans-boundary migration corridor move from areas under the jurisdiction and sovereignty of the Eastern Shoshone and Northern Arapaho, to lands where the Wyoming Game and Fish Department manages wildlife. West of the Reservation, deer migrate to summer ranges in the Absaroka Range, the Mount Leidy Highlands, and the Gros Ventre River watershed, all within the Bridger-Teton and Shoshone National Forests. The herd numbers around 3,000. Arid winter ranges are a mix of shrubs, herbaceous grasslands and riparian ecosystems, within Tribal land as well as private land along the Wind River. Animals migrate an average one-way distance of 63 mi (101 km), ranging from as little as 14 mi (23 km) to as far as 141 mi (227 km). Summer ranges are predominantly lodgepole pine forests with smaller areas of open herbaceous grasslands. The population size of the herd has remained relatively steady over the last decade. There is minimal concern for these animals on winter range because Tribal Trust Land is under low risk of development, and the Shoshone and Arapaho manage deer hunting for sustainable harvest under a game code established in 1984. However, some of their winter range along Wind River is in close proximity to US Highway 26/287, putting deer at heightened risk of vehicle collisions. Critically, the migration routes extend through residential areas such as Dubois and the Hoback Basin with heightened risk of negative human-wildlife interactions (i.e. vehicle collisions, fences and barriers). Summer ranges within National Forests are of less concern. These data provide the location of migration routes for mule deer in the Owl Creek Mountains population in the Wind River Reservation. They were developed from 73 migration sequences collected from a sample size of 20 animals comprising GPS locations collected every 2 hours.

Get Data and Metadata
Author(s) Matthew J Kauffman orcid, Blake H Lowrey orcid, Jeffrey Beck, Jodi Berg orcid, Scott Bergen, Joel Berger orcid, James W Cain orcid, Sarah Dewey, Jennifer Diamond, Orrin Duvuvuei, Julien Fattebert orcid, Jeff Gagnon, Julie Garcia, Evan Greenspan orcid, Embere Hall, Glenn Harper, Stan Harter, Kent Hersey, Pat Hnilicka, Mark Hurley, Lee Knox, Art Lawson, Eric Maichak, James Meacham, Jerod Merkle orcid, Arthur Middleton, Daniel Olson, Lucas Olson, Craig Reddell, Benjamin S Robb orcid, Gabe Rozman, Hall Sawyer orcid, Cody Schroeder, Brandon Scurlock orcid, Jeff Short, Scott Sprague, Alethea Steingisser, Nicole Tatman
Publication Date 2022-04-07
Beginning Date of Data 2018-01-01
Ending Date of Data 2021-06-01
Data Contact
DOI https://doi.org/10.5066/P9TKA3L8
Citation Kauffman, M.J., Lowrey, B.H., Beck, J., Berg, J., Bergen, S., Berger, J., Cain, J.W., Dewey, S., Diamond, J., Duvuvuei, O., Fattebert, J., Gagnon, J., Garcia, J., Greenspan, E., Hall, E., Harper, G., Harter, S., Hersey, K., Hnilicka, P., Hurley, M., Knox, L., Lawson, A., Maichak, E., Meacham, J., Merkle, J., Middleton, A., Olson, D., Olson, L., Reddell, C., Robb, B.S., Rozman, G., Sawyer, H., Schroeder, C., Scurlock, B., Short, J., Sprague, S., Steingisser, A., and Tatman, N., 2022, Migration Routes of Mule Deer in Owl Creek Mountains Herd in Wyoming: U.S. Geological Survey data release, https://doi.org/10.5066/P9TKA3L8.
Metadata Contact
Metadata Date 2022-04-07
Related Publication
Citations of these data

Loading https://doi.org/10.3133/sir20225008

Access public
License http://www.usa.gov/publicdomain/label/1.0/
Loading...
Harvest Source: ScienceBase
Harvest Date: 2022-04-08T04:39:48.789Z