One lone mule deer’s decision to continue down a separate path and travel an additional 90 miles shows how little is really known about wildlife migration. The herd crosses lands that are managed by state agencies and federal agencies, 41 different private property owners, close to 100 fences three to four different highways.” “If you think about moving 150 miles anywhere in the U.S., you run into a bunch of obstacles.

“My colleague, Hall Sawyer, discovered the Red Desert to Hobart migration corridor,” Kauffman says. Instead, she continued travelling until she reached Island Park, Idaho, and her GPS collar died, leaving the rest of her journey-and her current whereabouts-unknown. But 225 didn’t stop when the rest of the herd did. We’ve taken fairly cutting-edge scientific studies and tried to distill them down for the atlas.” Mapping New Migration RoutesĮarlier this year, Doe number 255 (named by her GPS collar) began her spring migration across much of Wyoming, traveling the herd's familiar route from the Red Desert to Hoback-a trek identified in 2012 as one of the longest mule deer migration routes at 150 miles long. “There are some similar things for bird migration,” Kauffman says, “but for big game migration-for ungulates specifically-this is the first one of its kind. Decades of data collected through satellite tracking collars were studied to identify migratory patterns of big game animals native to Wyoming, and the work could provide a broad roadmap for future conservation projects focusing on many different species. Kauffman recently served as senior editor of the newly-released book, “ Wild Migrations, Atlas of Wyoming’s Ungulates.” His team collaborated with fellow scientists, cartographers, historians, wildlife specialists and photographers to produce a comprehensive analysis of Wyoming’s ungulate migration patterns.

This book is the definitive synthesis of these epic journeys as seen through the eyes of the biologists and wildlife managers who have studied the ungulates, or hoofed mammals, of Wyoming. Wild Migrations: Atlas of Wyoming’s Ungulates tells the story of the long-distance migrations that elk, mule deer, moose, pronghorn, bighorn sheep, bison, and mountain goats make each spring and fall across the landscapes of the American West.

Moose tracks vs elk tracks