Mule Deer Migration Corridors, Pacific Herd - 2015-2020 [ds3142]

Mule deer (52 adult females) from the Pacific herd were captured and equipped with store-onboard GPS collars (Vectronic Plus Vertex Survey Iridium), transmitting data from 2015-2020. Pacific mule deer are found on the western slope of the Sierra Nevada in eastern California and exhibit largely traditional seasonal migration strategies.

This population migrates from a multitude of lower elevation areas in the foothills of El Dorado National Forest in winter westward into higher elevation summer ranges. Migrants vary in their movements from shorter (6 km) to longer (41 km) distances.GPS locations were fixed between 1-13 hour intervals in the dataset. To improve the quality of the dataset, the GPS data were filtered prior to analysis to remove locations which were fixed in 2D space and visually assessed as a bad fix by the analyst.The methodology used for this migration analysis allowed for the mapping of winter ranges and the identification and prioritization of migration corridors.