Spatial Extent of Data
USGS Data Source
USGS Thesaurus Keywords
ISO 19115 Topic Category
Place Keywords
California Mule Deer Kern River Winter Range
The Kern River deer herd includes primarily California mule deer (Odocoileus hemionus californicus), but some Inyo mule deer (Odocoileus hemionus inyoensis) associate with California mule deer on the summer range. The population size peaked at 11,000 individuals in 1949, but in recent decades numbers have decreased to an estimated 3,500 deer in 1995 and 2,000 deer in 2001. The population size estimate is now, conservatively, approximately 4,000 individuals owing primarily to habitat expansion by the 2001 McNally Fire (California Department of Fish and Wildlife unpublished data). The Kern River herd winters in Sequoia National Forest north of Johnsondale and east of Slate Mountain. In the spring, they migrate northward to an area by Redrocks Meadows and along the Kern Canyon ridgeline to their summer range in Sequoia National Park. The herd’s annual range spans the watersheds of the Kern and Little Kern rivers in eastern Tulare County. Elevations range from 2,500 ft on the southern slopes of the winter range to over 11,000 ft on the northern summer range. Telemetry data over the past two decades show considerable mixing between this herd and the Manache herd on their summer ranges. Further research may support the hypothesis that these herds are actually sub-herds of a larger population. These mapping layers show the location of the winter ranges for mule deer (Odocoileus hemionus) in the Kern River population in California. They were developed from 60 sequences collected from a sample size of 27 animals comprising GPS locations collected every 2 hours.
Author(s) |
Matthew J Kauffman |
Publication Date | 2022-12-15 |
Beginning Date of Data | 2020 |
Ending Date of Data | 2021 |
Data Contact | |
DOI | https://doi.org/10.5066/P9LSKEZQ |
Citation | Kauffman, M.J., Lowrey, B.H., Berg, J., Bergen, S., Brimeyer, D., Burke, P., Cufaude, T., Cain, J.W., Cole, J.C., Courtemanch, A.B., Cowardin, M., Cunningham, J., DeVivo, M., Diamond, J., Duvuvuei, O., Fattebert, J., Ennis, J., Finley, D., Fort, J., Fralick, G., Freeman, E., Gagnon, J., Garcia, J., Gelzer, E., Graham, M., Gray, J.T., Greenspan, E., Hall, L.E., Hendricks, C., Holland, A., Holmes, B., Huggler, K., Hurley, M., Jeffreys, E., Johnson, A., Knox, L., Krasnow, K., Lockyer, Z., Manninen, H., McDonald, M., McKee, J.A., Meacham, J., Merkle, J.A., Moore, B., Mong, T.W., Nielsen, C., Oates, B., Olsen, K., Olson, D., Olson, L., Pieron, M., Powell, J., Prince, A., Proffitt, K.M., Reddell, C., Riginos, C., Ritson, R., Robatcek, S., Roberts, S., Sawyer, H., Schroeder, C., Shapiro, J., Simpson, N., Sprague, S., Steingisser, A., Tatman, N., Turnock, B., Wallace, C., and Aldrich-Wolfe, L., 2022, California Mule Deer Kern River Winter Range: U.S. Geological Survey data release, https://doi.org/10.5066/P9LSKEZQ. |
Metadata Contact | |
Metadata Date | 2023-10-04 |
Related Publication | Loading... |
Citations of these data | Loading https://doi.org/10.3133/sir20225088 |
Access | public |
License | http://www.usa.gov/publicdomain/label/1.0/ |
Harvest Date: 2024-12-26T20:28:15.411Z