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Migrating mule deer compensate en route for phenological mismatches
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Migrating mule deer compensate en route for phenological mismatches
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Migrating mule deer compensate en route for phenological mismatches
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Journal Article
Migrating mule deer compensate en route for phenological mismatches
2023
Overview
Billions of animals migrate to track seasonal pulses in resources. Optimally timing migration is a key strategy, yet the ability of animals to compensate for phenological mismatches en route is largely unknown. Using GPS movement data collected from 72 adult female deer over a 10-year duration, we study a population of mule deer (
Odocoileus hemionus
) in Wyoming that lack reliable cues on their desert winter range, causing them to start migration 70 days ahead to 52 days behind the wave of spring green-up. We show that individual deer arrive at their summer range within an average 6-day window by adjusting movement speed and stopover use. Late migrants move 2.5 times faster and spend 72% less time on stopovers than early migrants, which allows them to catch the green wave. Our findings suggest that ungulates, and potentially other migratory species, possess cognitive abilities to recognize where they are in space and time relative to key resources. Such behavioral capacity may allow migratory taxa to maintain foraging benefits amid rapidly changing phenology.
This study examined the movements of mule deer in western Wyoming, which began their spring migration considerably mismatched from the wave of green-up that propagates from low-elevation winter ranges to high-elevation summer ranges. They show that individual deer compensated for phenological mismatches with the green wave en route by accelerating or decelerating their movement.
