Yellowstone's Northern Range - Greater Yellowstone Science ...

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THE NORTHERN RANGE Figure 7.7. Environmental factors that favored increases in elk numbers ill the 1970s and 1980s also favored increases in mule deel: NPS photo. growth forests (1995). Recent estimates were of about 200 on the northern range but counts are often inconclusive because moose are solitary animals that spend much time in forested areas. In winter, northern range elk ate about 80 percent grasses, 17 percent browse, and 3 percent forbs (Houston 1982). By contrast, moose are primarily browsers. From 1986 to 1990, Tyers (U.S. Forest Service, Gardiner Dist., unpubl. data) studied moose on Yellowstone's northern range in a slightly expanded area that included adjacent, higher elevation areas not studied by Houston. Tyers found that moose ate 39.6 percent subalpine fir, 25.5 percent willows, 10.6 percent lodgepole pine, 4.6 percent gooseberry, and 4 percent buffaloberry. Most of their browsing occurred in 300+ year-old lodgepole forests, the oldest sproce-fir forests, and the 100- to 300-year-old lodgepole forests. Moose are able to winter in snow 150 percent as deep as can elk, and tend to winter at higher elevations than elk. Moose population data on the northel11 range is meager compared to the other ungulate species, which is a function of their solitary habits in forested habitats. The Northern Yellowstone Cooperative Wildlife Working Group stopped conducting aerial censuses for moose after 1992, believing them to be inaccurate but lacking a better method. Still, there is evidence of a decline of moose on the northern range since the 1960s, and particularly since the fires of 1988. While competitive exclusion by elk cannot be ruled out as a reason for the suggested decline, the fires and overhunting may be factors as well. 86 MULE DEER Mule deer winter in the Gardiner Basin from the vicinity of Mammoth Hot Springs, Wyoming, to the south end of Yankee Jim Canyon (Figure 7.7). The herd's winter distribution is contiguous with that of other mule deer herds north of Yankee Jim Canyon. The bulk of the herd winters beyond the northern border of Yellowstone National Park because of shallower snow depths at those lower elevations (Figure 7.8). Northern range mule deer numbers, like those of many greater Yellowstone ungulate herds, increased during the 1980s when the northern Yellowstone elk also were increasing (Appendix B). Even if several research projects had found evidence of elk olitcompeting mule deer for food or other resources, the doubling of the mule deer herd is circumstantial evidence that competition is not causing the mule deer herds significant problems. In the winter of 1993, P. Gogan (U.S. Geol. Surv., pers. commun.) began a research project designed to identify the summer range of the northern Yellowstone mule deer herd, and determine the extent to which it had been affected by the 1988 fires. Sixty adult female mule deer were captured in the Gardiner Basin and fitted with radio collars in March 1993. These does were relocated by aircraft to determine their seasonal movement patterns and location of summer ranges. An additional 25 adult females were captured and radiocollared in the same area in March 1995. Results of radio tracking showed that some 30 percent of the deer were year-round residents of the Gardiner Basin, simply moving to higher elevations in the same drainage in which they winter. The remaining 70 percent of the deer moved seasonally. Those deer wintering on the east side of the Yellowstone River generally moved to the east, to summer ranges in all the drainages between Crevice Creek and Cooke City, as well as the Mirror Plateau and to the northeast to Mill Creek in
ELK AND OTHER SPECIES 87 Northern Winter Range Mule Deer Range 6.2km Figure 7.8. Mule deer winter range is primarily north of the park boundmy. Map by Yellowstone Spatial Analysis Center and the Yellowstone Center for Resources. (10 mi) Paradise Valley. Deer from one drainage on the east side of the Yellowstone River crossed the river and the Gallatin Mountain range to summer near Big Sky, Montana. Those deer wintering on the west side of the Yellowstone River moved to summer ranges along the western park boundary from the vicinity of Monument Mountain to West Yellowstone and south to Bechler Meadows. Other deer wintering on the west side of the Yellowstone River used summer ranges from NOlTis Geyser Basin south to Shoshone and Lewis lakes. An analysis of the nature of the deer summer ranges and the extent to which they were altered by the 1988 fires is currently under way in cooperation with Montana State University. Our interpretation of the mule deer population data follows two lines. In one scenario based on recent counts, the entire population of mule deer has mare than doubled in the last two decades. Counting techniques, however, were not standardized until 1986. In the second scenario mule deer have increased less, but have still grown at least 40 percent, based on the standardized regular counts from 1986 to 1996. Numbers of mule deer counted have increased from approximately 1,800 in 1986 to about 2,500 in 1996. In either scenario, it would appear that the environmental factors contributing to an increase in numbers of elk on the northern range were also favorable to an increase in mule deer numbers in the herd. Despite the increase in the entire herd, the mule deer that winter in the Boundary Line Area (again recognizing that two different counting techniques were used) have declined from about 230 in the 1960s to about 100 in the 1980s (Barmore 1980, Singer 1991b). The question, then, that can be asked is: how we can observe an increase on the entire mule deer herd but have a decline in a subunit on about five percent of the deer's winter range? The answer probably lies in a slow decline of big sagebrush, a key winter deer food, in the Boundary Line Area. Because we are
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THE NORTHERN RANGE 16 Northern rang
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THE NORTHERN RANGE 20 Figure 2.4 Tr
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THE NORTHERN RANGE 22 dendrochronol
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THE NORTHERN RANGE 24 Figure 2.7. A
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THE NORTHERN RANGE 26 et al. (1991)
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THE NORTHERN RANGE 28 earlier time,
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THE NORTHERN RANGE 32 systems-range
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THE NORTHERN RANGE 34 indicates the
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Page 60 and 61: Figure 4.1. Northern range, showing
Page 62 and 63: Figure 4.2. Willow distribution in
Page 64 and 65: THE NORTHERN RANGE 48 Figure 4.4. I
Page 66 and 67: THE NORTHERN RANGE 50 public lands,
Page 68 and 69: THE NORTIlERN RANGE 52 Figure 4.5.
Page 70 and 71: THE NORTHERN RANGE 54 able uncertai
Page 72 and 73: THE NORTHERN RANGE 56 to confirm an
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Page 77 and 78: SOIL, EROSION, SEDIMENTS, AND WATER
Page 79 and 80: SOIL, EROSION, SEDIMENTS, AND WATER
Page 81 and 82: ated with ungulate winter ranges. T
Page 83 and 84: ELK POPULATION ISSUES IS YELLOWSTON
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Page 87 and 88: ELK POPULATION ISSUES 71 ... Other
Page 89 and 90: ELK POPULATION ISSUES 73 1996d), so
Page 91 and 92: ELK POPULATION ISSUES 75 the northe
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Page 100 and 101: Figure 7.3. Bison winter range. Sin
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Page 106 and 107: THE NORTHERN RANGE 90 tion size, an
Page 108 and 109: THE NORTHERN RANGE 92 activity (95
Page 110 and 111: THE NORTHERN RANGE 94 pursue the su
Page 112 and 113: THE NORTHERN RANGE 96 factors were
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Page 118 and 119: THE NORTHERN RANGE 102 complex set
Page 120 and 121: THE NORTHERN RANGE 104 practically
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Page 124 and 125: AppendixA. Conferences, Meetings, a
Page 126 and 127: lJO Year Estimate Comment Source 19
Page 128 and 129: lJ2 , Estimated # of Elk Year Date
Page 130 and 131: lJ4 Winter Total Count 1967-68 397
Page 132 and 133: 116 Year Date of Count Parkwide Par
Page 134 and 135: 118 Counts and estimates of mule de
Page 136 and 137: 120 Northern Yellowstone winter ran
Page 138 and 139: 122 Population estimates and reduct
Page 140 and 141: 124 Actual count Inside Outside Est
Page 142 and 143: Pronghorn counted during spring sur
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Page 146 and 147: Ground and aerial counts of bighorn
Page 148 and 149: REFERENCE LIST NOTES ON THIS REFERE
Page 150 and 151: Pages 199-210 in Carbyn, L.N., S.H.
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Yellowstone National Park. Technica
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mammal mortality in the 1988 Yellow
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National Park. International Journa
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Mehus, C.A. 1995. Influences ofbraw
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Pages 127-138 in F.J. Singer, ed. E
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some northern Yellowstone elk. M.S.
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