Migration routes of mule deer in the South Tuscarora Mountains, Nevada

Mule deer in the South Tuscarora herd are part of the larger “Area 6” deer population that reside in the southern and eastern portion of this big game Management Area (MA 6). The winter range for this sub population is located along the western slopes of the Tuscarora Mountains and the Dunphy Hills. The spring migration route for this deer herd traverses north along the toe slopes of the Tuscarora Mountains on the east side and narrows to approximately 600 meters at one pinch point near the Carlin -Pete Mine area. The migration route generally spans about 30 miles to the northeast to higher elevations in the northern Tuscarora Mountains. Important stopover areas include Richmond Mountain, Jack and Little Jack Creeks, and Coyote Creek drainages on the east side of the Tuscarora Mountains. Challenges to this deer herd include constrictions in the migration corridor due to large scale gold mining operations, as well as compromised winter ranges in the Dunphy Hills that have experienced multiple wildfires over the past decade. Interstate traffic also poses a challenge to some deer that continue to migrate south and experience a high rate of mortality and a complex network of fences along the I-80 corridor.
These data provide the location of migration routes for mule deer (Odocoileus hemionus) in the South Tuscarora, Nevada. They were developed from Brownian bridge movement models (Sawyer et al. 2009) using 63 migration sequences collected from a sample size of 31 animals comprising GPS locations collected every 1-25 hours.