Wyoming Migration Initiative

#Deer665's route shows the bigger picture of ungulate migrations in the American West: Animals move from desert winter ranges to lush summer ranges, maximizing the extreme contrast of the seasons to their advantage. These migrations support abundant herds and intact ecosystems. #Deer #Science

In South Park of #JacksonHole, #Deer665 bounded across busy US 26/191 and passed ranch lands, a golf course, and conservation easements before swimming the Snake River. Then she climbed over the 8,400 crest of #TetonPass to reach summer range.

#Deer665 made it to summer range on Teton Pass in western #Wyoming. Her spring migration was 173 miles long, and took 35 days, including 18 days moving & 17 in stopovers. The last leg after 6/4 involved crossing a 5-lane highway and the Snake River. #deer #nature

That's it for week 4 of #deer665 migration tracking. We'll keep you updated with week 5! ( #deer (Drone clips of Granite Creek by Tanner Warder et. al.)

On June 3rd, Deer 665 crossed Granite Creek and headed up the Boulder Creek drainage where she finished the week of migration on June 4. (Image of another #deer nicknamed Jo, that we tracked in Granite Creek back in 2020, Credit Tanner Warder, Wyoming Coop Unit). @deerposts.bsky.social

By June 2nd, Deer 665 had climbed to a spot 1.5 miles north of US 191 where it enters the east side of Hoback River Canyon. This is close to where Deer 665 was born in June 2021, a story we are excited to share in the coming weeks. (Image of Hoback Basin pronghorn from May 2018)

Deer 665’s fourth week of migration started at the Raspberry Ridge stopover from May 28-31. She was likely eating wildflowers like sticky purple geranium, arrowleaf balsalmroot (shown here), lupine, and mules ears (wyethia), before she started migrating again on June 1st.

Migration Tracking Week 4🦌🦌🦌🦌#Deer665 left her stopover in Hoback Basin after seven days, trekking 18 miles further through the Gros Ventre Mountains. She has migrated 147 miles in 31 days of migration, spending 17 of those days foraging in stopovers.

‪@deerposts.bsky.social‬

‪@deerposts.bsky.social‬

‪@deerposts.bsky.social‬

Thanks everyone for following along, and we look forward to sharing week 4 of the #deer665 migration! (This is her from last November 2024, with her GPS collar in the Prospect Mountains, credit to field technician Phoenix Bennett.) #nature #wyoming #Deer #wildlife

#Deer665 has migrated a long way to reach these slopes of wildflowers, aspen and pine that offer food and security. Raspberry Ridge is one of #Deer 665’s favorite stopovers from previous years. She spent five days here in May 2024, and two weeks in June 2023. (Clip from 2018.)

#Deer665 came within 1/4 mile of the Rim Station on May 23, leaving the Upper Green and entering Hoback Basin (shown in photo). She stayed north of US 191. By May 24, #Deer 665 made it to Raspberry Ridge, where she spent five days on stopover to close out week three of her migration on May 28.

On May 22 #deer665 bounded across the Cora highway WY 352 (shown in this Joe Riis photo) and splashed across the Green River later that day.

From there #Deer665 crossed the Soda Lake Wildlife Habitat Management area on May 21, and passed another bottleneck at Willow Lake. (Deer foraging on lupine near Willow Lake in May 2018, credit Gregory Nickerson - Wyoming Migration Initiative)

This effort is a great example of migration data leading to targeted, voluntary conservation.

The Luke Lynch wildlife refuge was named in memory of the #Wyoming director of @theconservationfund who raised more than $2M to purchase and restore the land & donate it to WY Game and Fish Dept.

The map shows her swimming across Fremont Lake bottleneck outside of Pinedale on May 20, though our GPS didn’t pick up the exact crossing location.

From there #Deer 665 moved through the Luke Lynch Wildlife Habitat Management Area.

Migration tracking week 3: 🦌 #Deer665 migrated 37 miles through the finger lakes near Pinedale, WY to a new stopover in the Hoback Basin. So far she has migrated about 129 miles in 24 days since leaving her Red Desert winter range, with a full two weeks spent in stopover.

Wyoming Game and Fish Department,
Bureau of Land Management – Wyoming,
The Nature Conservancy,
The Pew Charitable Trusts,
and Sweetwater Royalties, Ghost Town of Superior Wyoming, and Wildcat Coal (for private land access).

Biodiversity Institute of UW – Don and Judy Legerski Fellowship,
Wyoming NASA Space Grant Consortium Graduate Fellowship,
the UW Science Initiative Graduate Fellowship,
USGS Wyoming Landscape Conservation Initiative,
Wyoming Governor's Big Game License Coalition,
Teton Conservation District,

Muley Fanatic Foundation – Southwest Wyoming Chapter,
Muley Fanatic Foundation Upper Green Chapter
10 Country Chapter of The Muley Fanatic Foundation,
Mule Deer Foundation of Wyoming,
Mule Deer Foundation Headquarters,
SITKA Gear,
National Science Foundation,

The Red Desert Mule Deer Study is generously supported by many partners and funders, including:
Knobloch Family Foundation,
George B. Storer Foundation,
Safari Club International Foundation and 100 Hunter Legacy Endowment Fund,
Muley Fanatic Foundation Headquarters,

Cartography by WMI's Ian Freeman, based on maps by our Wild Migrations atlas partners at the Department of Geography, University of Oregon InfoGraphics lab.

The data for this map is thanks to collaboration between our team at the University of Wyoming and biologists with the Wyoming Game and Fish Department, Monteith Shop, Bureau of Land Management - Wyoming, and USGS Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Research Units.

So far it looks like #Deer665 is in a hurry to cover ground. Her rate of travel varied from four miles to 10 miles per day. How far do you think she’ll move in the coming week? Twenty, 30, or 40 miles? Leave your guess in the comments and we’ll let you know how she traveled next week!

#Deer 665 must jump or slide under dozens of barbed wire fences. This is risky, because deer can tangle in the wires and get trapped. Fortunately people have retrofitted hundreds of miles of fences, adjusting the height and adding smooth wire to be more wildlife-friendly. Photo by Tanner Warder.

#Deer 665’s herd traverses working lands owned by BLM, state of Wyoming, and private ranchers. Several properties along the route are protected as Game and Fish Wildlife Habitat Management Areas, or private conservation easements.

This migration used by #Deer665 and thousands of mule #deer persists because there is so little development. Access roads are generally gravel with low-traffic. Livestock grazing and targeted conservation have kept the land open, which allows wildlife to move through relatively easily.