Migration Routes of Mule Deer in the Upper Shoshone Herd in Wyoming

Mule deer within the Upper Shoshone herd make a number of significant, long-distance migrations west into the core of the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem. The longest is a 133-mile (214-km) migration that originates at the mouth of the South Fork of the Shoshone River near Buffalo Bill Reservoir and ends at Jenny Lake in Grand Teton National Park. Deer in the Upper Shoshone herd winter in the lower-elevation sagebrush valleys of the South Fork Shoshone River and North Fork of the Shoshone River. Each spring, an estimated 6,700 deer head west into the high-elevation, mountainous country of the Absaroka Range and then into Yellowstone National Park or Grand Teton National Park. These challenging journeys, an average of 53 mi (85 km) long, cross rugged terrain with fast-moving rivers and steep mountain passes. The highest is Deer Creek Pass at 10,800 ft (3,292 m) in elevation. These deer also navigate human-created obstacles, such as fences, housing developments, and U.S. Highway 16, a major road into Yellowstone National Park. These data provide the location of migration routes for mule deer (Odocoileus hemionus) in the Upper Shoshone herd in Wyoming. They were developed from Brownian bridge movement models using 159 migration sequences collected from a sample size of 56 animals comprising GPS locations collected every 2-8 hours.