Arizona Mule Deer South of I 40 Routes

South of Interstate 40 mule deer reside in Game Management Units (GMU) 8 and 6B in Arizona. The herd summers in high-elevation open meadows and ponderosa pine habitat southwest of Flagstaff, Arizona. In late October, the herd migrates west to lower elevation pinyon-juniper and shrub habitats near the junction of Interstate 40 and U.S. Highway 89. With funding support by the U.S. Department of the Interior (USDI) through Secretarial Order 3362, research on this herd’s migration began in February 2020. Additional GPS collars were deployed in January 2022 with support from the U.S. Forest Service, Mule Deer Foundation, and other partners. Primary threats to the herd’s migration involve high volume roads including Interstate 40, and U.S. Highways 89 and 89A.
These mapping layers show the location of the migration routes for mule deer (Odocoileus hemionus) in the South of I-40 population in Arizona. They were developed from 20 migration sequences collected from a sample size of 7 adult animals comprising GPS locations collected approximately every 3 hours.