Nevada Mule Deer Spring Mountains Migration Corridors

The Spring Mountains are critical habitat for the Spring Mountains mule deer herd in southern Nevada. The Spring Mountains west of Las Vegas, Nevada range in elevation from low meadows at 3,000 ft (910 m) to Charleston Peak at nearly 12,000 ft (3,632 m). Lower elevations are dominated by desert scrub and shrubland transitioning to Yucca brevifolia (Joshua tree) and pinyon-juniper forest at midelevations, with mixed montane conifer including ponderosa pine and Pinus longaeva (bristlecone pine) pine at higher elevations, and sparse alpine grasses and forbs above the tree line. The migratory behavior of the Spring Mountains mule deer herd is variable, with a mix of year-round residents and short-distance elevational migrants. Lovell Canyon serves as a well-used corridor between high-elevation summer range near Mount Charleston and low-elevation winter range near Mountain Springs (fig. 12). In 2020, a wildlife underpass was completed to facilitate movement across State Route 160 and reduce wildlife-vehicle collisions. Most of the land in the Spring Mountains is managed by the FS and the BLM and serves as a popular, year-round recreational destination. Encroaching development, prolonged drought conditions, wildfires, feral equids, and human recreation affect the persistence of the mule deer herd in the Spring Mountains. These mapping layers show the location of the Migration routes for mule deer (Odocoileus hemionus) in the Spring Mountains population in Nevada. They were developed from 63 migration sequences collected from a sample size of 18 animals comprising GPS locations collected every 1−13 hours.

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  "geospatial"
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