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Wyoming Pronghorn Baggs Migration Routes

The Baggs pronghorn herd inhabits south-central Wyoming, to the southwest of Rawlins, Wyoming, bounded by Interstate 80 to the north and the Wyoming–Colorado border to the south (fig. 32). This herd unit includes the Atlantic Rim and the eastern part of the Red Desert Basin, which is an arid to semiarid Wyoming big sagebrush-steppe habitat marked by severe winters. Although the landscape is generally remote, human development, including oil and natural gas infrastructure and cattle and sheep ranching, affects the habitat the herd uses. Therefore, a GPS-collaring study (2013–16) was initiated to evaluate the effects of human-caused and environmental change on pronghorn in the Red Desert Basin (Reinking and others, 2018, 2019). Pronghorn in this herd are semimigratory to nomadic and migrate around the Sierra Madre. In general, pronghorn winter to the west of the Sierra Madre range and near Wyoming Highway 789, and spring migrations expand to the southeast, the east, or the north. However, migration routes are not always consistent, and pronghorn can backtrack across their migration route or remain on winter range year round. Some individuals in this herd seasonally overlap with the Elk Mountain herd (refer to the “Elk Mountain Pronghorn” section in this report). Property boundary or legacy livestock ranching fences remain prevalent in the area, restrict pronghorn movement, and pose a direct mortality risk. Interstate 80, the biggest barrier that Baggs pronghorn encounter, is rarely crossed by pronghorn because the interstate has a high traffic volume, net-wired right-of-way fencing, and part of the Union Pacific Railroad parallels the interstate. Wyoming Highway 789, which runs to the north and to the south and divides this herd, is another barrier. However, pronghorn can cross Wyoming Highway 789 more easily than Interstate 80 (Robb and others, 2022). Beginning in 2009, a series of underpasses were constructed on Wyoming Highway 789, to the north of Baggs, Wyoming, but they are used mostly by mule deer. Baggs pronghorn also share habitat and compete for resources with feral horses in the Adobe Town HMA and potentially the Salt Wells Creek HMA, to the west of Wyoming Highway 789 in the southern Red Desert Basin (Hennig, 2021; Hennig and others, 2021, 2022, 2024). Furthermore, feral horses, pronghorn, and cattle have a high degree of overlap at water sources in the Red Desert Basin (Hennig and others, 2021). These mapping layers show the location of the migration routes for pronghorn (Antilocapra americana) in the Baggs population in Wyoming. They were developed from 90 migration sequences collected from a sample size of 32 animals comprising GPS locations collected every ~2 hours.

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Author(s) Matthew J Kauffman orcid, Blake H Lowrey orcid, Jennifer L McKee orcid, Travis Allen, Chloe Beaupre orcid, Jeffrey Beck orcid, Scott Bergen, Justin Binfet, Shelly Blair, James W Cain orcid, Peyton Carl, Todd Cornish orcid, Michelle Cowardin, Rachel Curtis, Melia DeVivo, Jennifer Diamond, Katie Dugger orcid, Orrin Duvuvuei, C.J. Ellingwood, Darby Finley, Jessica Fort, Eric Freeman, Ian Freeman, Jeff Gagnon, Emily Gelzer orcid, Jacob Gray, Evan Greenspan orcid, Curtis Hendricks, Valerie Hinojoza-Rood, Matt Jeffress, Carolyn Kyle, Zack Lockyer, Cody McKee, Jerod Merkle orcid, Jerrod Merrell, Matt Mumma, Jake Powell, Craig Reddell, Adele Reinking orcid, Robert Ritson, Sierra Robatcek, Benjamin Robb orcid, Brianna Russo orcid, Hall Sawyer orcid, Cody Schroeder, Elissa Slezak, Scott Sprague, Erik Steiner orcid, Alethea Steingisser, Tom Stephenson, Nicole Tatman, Kaitlyn Taylor, Don Whittaker, Travis Zaffarano
Publication Date 2025-02-06
Beginning Date of Data 2013
Ending Date of Data 2015
Data Contact
DOI https://doi.org/10.5066/P1YJCCQA
Citation Kauffman, M.J., Lowrey, B.H., McKee, J.L., Allen, T., Beaupre, C., Beck, J., Bergen, S., Binfet, J., Blair, S., Cain, J.W., Carl, P., Cornish, T., Cowardin, M., Curtis, R., DeVivo, M., Diamond, J., Dugger, K., Duvuvuei, O., Ellingwood, C., Finley, D., Fort, J., Freeman, E., Freeman, I., Gagnon, J., Gelzer, E., Gray, J., Greenspan, E., Hendricks, C., Hinojoza-Rood, V., Jeffress, M., Kyle, C., Lockyer, Z., McKee, C., Merkle, J., Merrell, J., Mumma, M., Powell, J., Reddell, C., Reinking, A., Ritson, R., Robatcek, S., Robb, B., Russo, B., Sawyer, H., Schroeder, C., Slezak, E., Sprague, S., Steiner, E., Steingisser, A., Stephenson, T., Tatman, N., Taylor, K., Whittaker, D., and Zaffarano, T., 2025, Wyoming Pronghorn Baggs Migration Routes: U.S. Geological Survey data release, https://doi.org/10.5066/P1YJCCQA.
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Metadata Date 2025-02-06
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Harvest Source: ScienceBase
Harvest Date: 2025-02-07T05:07:48.543Z