Download or read book Habitat Restoration Effects and Habitat Selection of Female Mule Deer in the Jemez Mountains New Mexico written by Tanya Marianne Roerick and published by . This book was released on 2017 with total page 276 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Habitat alterations have affected mule deer (Odocoileus hemionus) populations and in the last 50 years mule deer populations have been declining throughout the western United States. Fire suppression and logging have altered mule deer habitat by increasing tree densities and reducing forage quality and abundance for mule deer. Forest restoration treatments have become more common in an attempt to improve wildlife habitat and to mitigate the risk of catastrophic wildfires, but little is known regarding the effects of forest restoration and habitat treatments on mule deer populations. Landscape-scale forest restoration treatments are occurring in the Jemez Mountains, New Mexico primarily through the use of prescribed burning and forest thinning. I assessed habitat selection of adult female mule deer at two spatial scales in relation to forest restoration treatments and other habitat covariates. Mule deer selected for areas burned by prescribed five and avoided wildfire burned and thinned areas unless the forest thinning was >5 years old. At both spatial scales, grasslands were avoided during all seasons, pinyon-juniper woodlands were selected for in winter, and oak (Quercus spp) vegetation was selected for during the summer. Mixed conifer forests were selected during summer at the landscape scale and selected in most seasons at the within home range scale. Odds of use increased with increasing distance from perennial water sources and mule deer selected for low elevation at the landscape scale. Mule deer selected for intermediate slopes and odds of use increased with decreasing distance to high use roads at both spatial scales. My data suggests mule deer benefit from prescribed burns and older forest thinning rather than wildfire burned areas. Knowledge of the short and long term effects of restoration treatments will provide researchers guidance when making management decisions in terms of how often treatments should occur, the sizing, and timing of treatments.

Download or read book Population Ecology and Summer Habitat Selection of Mule Deer in the White Mountains written by Sabrina Morano and published by . This book was released on 2016 with total page 376 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Changes in landscape composition have the potential to negatively influence animal populations through shifts in dominant plant communities, loss of important forage items, or changes in structural components of habitat. In the western United States, expansion of woodland vegetation into shrub dominated communities is of concern, particularly with regard to animal populations reliant on robust sagebrush and shrub vegetation. Once established, trees can out-compete shrubs and herbaceous plants resulting in declines in abundance and diversity of shrub-forb vegetation, which female mule deer are reliant on during summer months to meet nutritional demands and to provide hiding cover for young. As a result, shifts in the distribution of pinyon-juniper woodland and increases in tree densities could negatively affect mule deer population. The study had two primary objectives, (1) to determine summer habitat composition of female mule deer in the White Mountains of California and eastern Nevada, and assess implications of pinyon-juniper expansion on habitat availability, and (2) evaluate the status of the population relative to nutritional carrying capacity and determined the influence of habitat and precipitation on demographic rates. I used mixed-effects logistic regression to model summer resource selection and demographic rates of female mule deer from 2005 to 2008. Summer resource selection was modeled at two spatial scales and among three behavioral periods, related to foraging, resting, and parturition. Summer habitat consisted of sites with high productivity, greater shrub abundance, and greater proximity to riparian areas. Deer avoided high levels of tree cover at all spatial and temporal scales, but they selected areas with low to intermediate tree cover during resting periods and during parturition. Moreover, mule deer avoided areas of productive shrub-forb vegetation (riparian and shrub NDVI), when surrounded by stands of high level pinyon-juniper cover, otherwise those vegetation types were strongly selected. During parturition female mule deer selected habitat that maximized hiding cover for newborns (greater shrub densities and structural cover), while still providing foraging opportunities (greater NDVI and shrub cover). Females underutilized certain areas that contained optimal forage such as riparian corridors, high AET sites, higher elevation shrub communities, and selected areas with low to moderate tree cover, suggesting some trade-off between minimizing predation risk for offspring, and maximizing foraging opportunities. Demographic rates (body condition, survival, fetal rates, and index of recruitment) of female mule deer were sensitive to changes in resource availability resulting from variation in precipitation or habitat composition and suggestive of a population regulated to a greater degree by bottom-up processes, and likely nearing nutritional carrying capacity. Moreover, I identified a strong negative effect of pinyon-juniper cover on annual survival, only during periods of drought, otherwise individuals were able to maintain relatively high survival regardless of habitat composition. These results suggest that in productive years mule deer are able to inhabit areas of varying levels of pinyon-juniper cover with little effect on survival, and only during the drought years are negative effects evident. Results from this study emphasize the importance of productive shrub and forb vegetation to mule deer inhabiting semi-arid regions. Maintaining areas with low-to-intermediate tree cover, where there is still abundant shrub understory and sufficient concealment cover, may be beneficial to mule deer populations. Nevertheless, the strong influence of resource availability on the population suggests that conversion of sagebrush-steppe communities into large stands of PJ dominated woodlands would likely reduce the quality and abundance of available habitat for mule deer in the Great Basin.

Download or read book Survival Cause specific Mortality and Habitat Selection of Translocated Female Mule Deer in Southern New Mexico written by Jana Bethanie Ashling and published by . This book was released on 2015 with total page 248 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Many mule deer (Odocoileus hemionus) populations in southern New Mexico have failed to recover from past population declines. Concurrently, populations near urban areas have increased, resulting in overabundant populations and increased human-wildlife conflicts, including damage to property and increased vehicle collisions. Rather than conducting large-scale, lethal removal of mule deer, a translocation program was initiated in an effort to simultaneously reduce the density of the urban mule deer population in Silver City, New Mexico, and augment low density populations in two local mountain ranges: the Peloncillo Mountains (PE) and San Francisco River Valley (SFRV) in southwestern New Mexico. I monitored survival and cause-specific mortality, and compared a hard versus soft release method in the second year to determine if release method influenced survival rates. Causes of mortality were predation (51%), disease (9%), accident (5%), and poaching (5%) with an additional 20% of mortalities due to unknown causes. Mountains lions (Puma concolor) caused most of the confirmed predator kills. Annual survival of translocated deer varied by year and location, but did not differ between release methods. In 2013-2014, annual survival in the PE of hard-released deer was 0.61 (SE = 0.10) compared to 0.26 (SE = 0.09) in the SFRV. In 2014-2015, survival of hard-released deer in the PE was 0.65 (SE = 0.16) and survival of soft-released deer was 0.77 (SE = 0.12). In the SFRV, survival of hard- and soft-released deer was 0.67 (SE = 0.15) and 0.49 (SE = 0.16), respectively. Results of my study demonstrate that translocation can be an effective management tool to augment populations of mule deer while reducing over abundant urban populations. It also aids in evaluation of release method, with my study showing that release method did not appear to affect survival. although the timeframe and conditions were limited.

Download or read book Winter Habitat Selection by Female Mule Deer written by Eric Dwaine Anderson and published by . This book was released on 2010 with total page 78 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Habitat Selection by Mule Deer written by Matthew Christopher Nicholson and published by . This book was released on 1995 with total page 216 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Top down and Bottom up Influences on Central New Mexico Mule Deer Odocoileus Hemionus written by Jacob H. Kay and published by . This book was released on 2018 with total page 372 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Mule deer declined throughout the western United States over the last five decades. Researchers have identified numerous possible mechanisms underlying this range wide decline including: decrease in habitat quantity and quality, predation, competition with other species, disease and overharvest. However, changes in habitat conditions, resulting in diminished nutritional carrying capacity and predation have been the most widely implicated causes of declining mule deer populations. The relationships between nutrition, predation, climate and density dependence and their impact on mule deer vital rates are still not completely understood, and limit our ability to identify factors comtrolling population growth. However, as deer populations continue to decrease, managers face an increasingly urgent need to solve the complex ecological problems surrounding the decline of mule deer. I captured and fitted adult mountain lions (Puma concolor) and adult female mule deer (Odocoileus hemionus) with GPS telemetry collars and sampled vegetation in the Gallinas Mountains of New Mexico to examine the effects of predation and nutrition on mule deer.

Download or read book Mule Deer Habitat Guides written by Richard M. Kerr and published by . This book was released on 1979 with total page 70 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Habitat and Spatial Relationships Between Mule Deer and Cattle in a Sierra Nevada Forest Zone written by Eric Richard Loft and published by . This book was released on 1988 with total page 314 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Concern cattle were having negative impacts on female mule deer prompted a study of their relationships on summer range in the Sierra Nevada. There were three phases of the study: determine the influence of cattle grazing leve on habitats; determine habitat selection patterns of radio collared does and cattle; determine the influence of cattle grazing level on doe home range and spatial use patterns. To examine these relationships, the McCormick Creek Basin was divided into three grazing units for manipulating cattle stocking level. Home ranges increased in area as grazing level increased, with deer more evenly using their home ranges. Observations indicated that does mainted greater distances from cattle than expected and temporarily avoided areas of overlap when cattle were present. With the exception of aspen stands, deer did not avoid areas grazed by cattle. Consistent with competition theory, cattle caused deer to increase browse consumption, alter their habitat use patterns to include undesirable habitats, enlarge their home range areas, and temporarily avoid cattle.--Adapted from abstract.

Download or read book Habitat Use by Desert Mule Deer and Collared Peccary in an Urban Environment written by Elizabeth S. Bellantoni and published by . This book was released on 1991 with total page 54 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Parturition of Mule Deer in Southern Utah written by Eric D. Freeman and published by . This book was released on 2014 with total page 49 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Because neonate ungulates are most vulnerable to predation during parturition and shortly thereafter, selecting sites for parturition can have direct fitness consequences. We investigated the selection of sites for parturition by mule deer. We utilized vaginal implant transmitters to identify sites of parturition. We then obtained and compared macro- and micro- habitat features between sites of parturition and associated random sites. Partutitient females selected sites based on topography, habitat-type, and obscurity. Enhanced understanding of habitat variables that are selected for parturition provides insight into the life history or behavior of a species and allows managers to ensure that suitable habitat is available for this stage of life-cycles.

Download or read book Wheat Vs Wild written by Rebekah A. Hellesto and published by . This book was released on 2023 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Converting wildlife habitat to agricultural monoculture is one of the greatest drivers of habitat loss and can be a severe threat to many wildlife species. However, because mule deer (Odocoileus hemionus) typically live in rugged, less arable landscapes, little is known about how they use habitat fragmented by agriculture. Using Global Positioning System (GPS) data from a partially migratory herd of 62 adult female mule deer from 2018-2022, we examined migration strategies and modeled habitat selection at three spatial scales in southeastern Washington, which is a mosaic of mostly privately owned cereal grain agriculture, shrubland, grassland, and restored cropland in the Conservation Reserve Program (CRP). A minority of the mule deer population was migratory (30%), with relatively short and fast migrations. During migration, they primarily selected for shrubland and grassland in both fall and spring. Mule deer used various components of the landscape throughout the year but selected grassland as their highest-ranked habitat year-round when selecting for home ranges within the study area (second order) and in winter when selecting habitat within their home ranges (third order). During summer, mule deer focused on shrubland and forested habitats within their home range, likely because it provided increased security and thermal cover for fawn-rearing. In the winter, they selected agricultural habitats to a greater degree, which might reflect the growing winter wheat (Triticum aestivum) providing more nutrition during that time. Survival from birth to recruitment into the adult population can greatly influence population dynamics of wild ungulates like mule deer and is affected by both nutrition and cover found in high-quality habitats. We used the GPS data from our population to create resource selection function models during parturition and early fawn-rearing and for fawn bed site characteristics (fourth order). We searched for fawns and fawn bed sites in 2021 and 2022 and used a parturition model to predict birthing events of collared females for which we were unable to find fawns in 2018-2022. For parturition, fawn-rearing habitat, and fawn bed sites, vegetation types that provided more vertical structure, including shrubs and trees, were consistently selected and agriculture avoided. Both intact (i.e., never plowed) shrubland and CRP shrubland were equally selected. These vegetation types provided vertical and horizontal concealment cover for fawns that were also important characteristics of fawn bed site selection. Our research suggests that to promote sustainable populations of mule deer in a landscape dominated by agriculture, managers and landowners could increase the prevalence of quality shrubs and trees where possible to improve habitat and continue support for the CRP program that provides economic incentive to restore croplands for the benefit of wildlife like mule deer.

Download or read book Near and Deer written by Eli Wildey and published by . This book was released on 2023 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Outdoor recreation extends human influence on landscapes beyond built environments but is often thought to be compatible with wildlife conservation. Human capability as a highly efficient predator creates a strong selective force on wildlife, analogous to natural predation risk, regardless of trophic level. Behavioral responses have been observed across taxa but linking these changes in behavior to changes at the population-level represents an important step in understanding and mitigating the impact of our everyday presence on ecosystems. Here we present results of the habitat selection exhibited by ten mule deer (Odocoileus hemionus) in response to habitat and human factors and the possible influences on density. Mule deer abundance is generally declining throughout their range and disturbance on winter range presents a possible limiting factor. Winter range is geographically constrained, has increased movement costs associated with snow, and reduced forage quality. Pinyon-juniper forest on winter range has been managed to provide better habitat for ungulates. Disturbance associated with human activity could further limit deer winter habitat. Mule deer on our study area show differential habitat use and movement characteristics with time of day, and intensity of human disturbance. Habitat selection for mule deer was modelled using integrated step selection analysis (iSSA). Mule deer increasingly selected for forest land cover as human presence increased. Deer showed different movement responses with increasing human presence depending on the time of day. Changes to habitat selection, and movement patterns have important implications for habitat management of winter range and potential costs to deer populations. Pairing our movement data with camera data, we found evidence for a low density of mule deer on our winter range compared to winter ranges across Colorado possibly caused by human recreation. Low densities of mule deer has implications for the role density-dependent effects play in modifying the impact of recreation. Our study provides critical information on the role human recreation plays in modifying the effectiveness of habitat management on deer winter ranges and possible scenarios this may scale up to impact mule deer populations.

Download or read book Mule Deer Habitat Selection and Movement Patterns in North central Washington written by Robert Graham Carson and published by . This book was released on 1985 with total page 232 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Ecology and Management of Mule Deer and White tailed Deer in Montana written by and published by . This book was released on 1998 with total page 200 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Habitat Characteristics of the Silver Lake Mule Deer Range written by J. Edward Dealy and published by . This book was released on 1971 with total page 110 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Mule Deer Habitat Preference on the Pinyon juniper Ranges of Fort Stanton New Mexico written by James Clyde Germany and published by . This book was released on 1969 with total page 50 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Mule Deer Habitat Selection in Columbia River Rangelands of Northcentral Washington written by Dennis Bradley Griffith and published by . This book was released on 1991 with total page 174 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: