A Management Study of the Idaho-Utah Interstate Deer Herd with Speical Reference to the Sublett, Black Pine, and East Raft River Mountain Unit
Abstract
Extensive deer migrations have been observed for many years in western mountain regions. More recently several complex interstate migrations have becom the objects of careful study and the subjects of special wildlife management programs. The interstate deer migrations between the Sublett-Black Pine, Idaho, areas and the East Raft River Mountain, Utah, area are not exceptional. These migrations are now of such a magnitude that they are creating management problems of icnreasing importance to the 2 states involved. Knowledge of these migratory movements between Idaho and Utah has been commonplace for a number of years. However, it was not realized that these migrations occurred on such a large scale. Investigations of these movements were begun in 1949; but they were only intended to sample the magnitude of the problem, pending the institution of an intensified study program. The formulation of a management plan for an interstate deer herd requres the gathering of certain basic data upon which such a plan can be based. Specifically, the objectives of this mule deer, Odocoileus hemionus, migrations study were to determine: (1) the deer herd population, (2) the deer herd composition, (3) the dates of fall and spring migrations, (4) and the specific routes followed by these migratory deer between their summer and winter ranges.