Migration Corridors of Mule Deer in the Jawbone Ridge Herd in California

The Jawbone Ridge mule deer (Odocoileus hemionus) herd is a sub-herd of the Tuolumne herd, which migrate to the Jawbone Ridge flats in the winter in Tuolumne, Mariposa, and Alpine Counties. Additionally, a small sample of deer were captured from the Yosemite herd to determine herd overlap. GPS collars were normally set to take a location every 7 hours, and emit a signal Monday through Friday, 9am to 5pm. Some GPS collars were set to take a location fix every hour during periods of time when deer were thought to be migrating (May and November). The most important portion of the winter range is the Jawbone ridge flats, situated at an elevation of 4,000 feet. Deer migrate from here east into the high Sierra Nevada range. Migrating deer from the adjacent Clavey Unit and Cherry Unit were included in this analysis. Recent extensive fires and lice epidemics have negatively affected this herd. These data provide the location of migration corridors for mule deer in the Jawbone Ridge population in California. They were developed from 245 migration sequences collected from a sample size of 83 animals comprising GPS locations collected every 1-7 hours.