Tagged: migration

An environmental group says it has reached
an agreement with the U.S. Forest Service to remove some corrals it
says could impede pronghorn migration in western Wyoming.
     The group Western Watersheds sued last year over the corrals in
the Bridger-Teton National Forest east of Kelly in Jackson Hole.
     The Jackson Hole News & Guide reports
ranchers use the corral while they graze cattle on public land in
the Gros Ventre River drainage. The group says the corrals weren't
built in accord with federal rules and could impede antelope
migration between Jackson Hole and the Upper Green River Basin.
     Rancher Amy Robinson says removing the corrals will only be a

Researchers hope to determine how much development mule deer can tolerate on their migration routes.

Biologist Hall Sawyer found in a recent study that when mule deer travel between their summer and winter ranges, they spend 95 percent of their time stopping and eating.

“If we consider these migration routes highways, the stopovers would be like the hotels, where you crash in for the night and grab a bite to eat,” Sawyer said. “And maybe you stay there for a night, maybe you stay for a week.”

Sawyer says the young plants that the deer eat in these stopover areas are particularly nutritious, and some scientists hypothesize that if there’s too much development, the animals would migrate faster and would miss out on important food sources.