Migration Corridors of Pronghorn in the South of Interstate 40 Herd in Arizona

Interest in the movement of pronghorn south of Arizona’s Interstate 40 (I-40) began when telemetry data from 1999 – 2004 showed seasonal round-trip movements upwards of 100 miles. In 2018, high-resolution GPS location data confirmed persistence of this remarkable pronghorn migration. This herd resides primarily in Game Management Unit 8, which had a population estimate of 400 individuals in 2019. Unlike traditional summer-winter range dynamics, this pronghorn population uses a complex of several important seasonal ranges during their annual movements, which are connected by narrow corridors. The herd has high fidelity to these corridors, which elevates the importance of research and management efforts to conserve them. During the summer, these pronghorn inhabit large grasslands in the Garland Prairie area. During migration, animals parallel I-40 westward moving through densely forested habitat, then grasslands near Ash Fork, and finally moving south to winter range near Drake, AZ. In late March the migration is reversed. High-volume roads including I-40 and State Route 89 present the largest impediments to movement for this migration. These roads also appear to determine the herd’s movement patterns along this corridor, as pronghorn rarely cross them. These data provide the location of migration corridors for pronghorn (Antilocapra americana) from the South of Interstate 40 Herd in Arizona. They were developed from movement models using 34 migration sequences collected from a sample size of 21 adult pronghorn comprising GPS locations collected every 3 hours.

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  "010:12"
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  "geospatial"
]