Functional attributes of ungulate migration: landscape features facilitate movement and access to forage

Long-distance migration by terrestrial mammals is a phenomenon critical to the persistence of populations, but such migrations are declining globally because of over-harvest, habitat loss, and movement barriers. Increasingly, there is a need to improve existing routes, mitigate route segments affected by anthropogenic disturbance and in some instances, determine if alternative routes are available. Using a hypothesis-driven approach, we identified landscape features associated with the primary functional attributes, stopovers and movement corridors, of spring migratory routes for mule deer in 2 study areas using resource selection functions. Patterns of selection for landscape attributes of movement corridors and stopovers mostly were similar, however landscape features associated with movement corridors aligned better with areas that facilitated movement, whereas selection of stopovers was consistent with sites offering early access to spring forage. For movement corridors, deer select...