Wildlife Conservation - Deer & Elk Research in Wyoming HD

See how data from wildlife collars informs wildlife conservation efforts in Wyoming. Subscribe for more: http://bit.ly/2jwNfv0 To answer questions about wildlife, wildlife biologists are relying more and more on technology to more precisely answer our biggest questions. Collars allow us to continuously get data without additional human presence that could disturb the deer, and potentially affect our ability to understand their natural behavior. We collar a variety of wildlife, from grizzly bears to pronghorn. Wildlife collars tell the stories of what species need in order to thrive. The collars might remind you of the fitness watches that people wear to track their steps, but with one obvious difference: their size. The size of the collar is primarily due to a larger battery that lasts longer and minimizes the number of times we need to capture the deer. You may charge your fitness watch’s battery every night, but the battery in the GPS collar typically needs to last over a year. At one to two pounds for the average weight of a satellite GPS collar, the collar for the deer could be compared to you carrying a 32 ounce water bottle on a hike. The collars are designed to fit snugly so they don’t shift or get caught on anything as the animal moves throughout its day. Depending on the collar, they either expand, fall off after the animal reaches a certain size, or are programmed to fall off just before the battery dies so we can replace the battery and use the collar on another animal. GPS collars played a key role in showing just how far Mule Deer travel seasonally, or migrate, in western Wyoming. We could see that deer were migrating, but we still had more questions. Collars helped us understand that the Sublette mule deer herd migrates nearly 160 miles and their route is fairly defined year after year. Data from GPS collars illustrates the most effective places to install wildlife friendly fencing, build wildlife overpasses, and make other enhancements to make it easier for deer to complete their annual migration. Recently, in the Deer and Elk Ecological Research, or D.E.E.R. project with the Wyoming CO-OP Unit, deer and elk were captured and collared to begin a study to look at both deer populations and the elk populations in one system, and to be able to understand the dynamics at play between those two large herbivores. The study will help us learn more about competition and predation between deer and elk in southwest Wyoming. After the animals are captured we weigh them, take a blood sample, take a tooth sample to get an exact age, use ultrasound on does to determine if they’re pregnant, record body measurements, and analyze body condition. While it’s still too early in the study to make any final conclusions, one thing is certain ---the level of detail we’re able to see after analyzing the GPS collar data shows population level trends with a level of accuracy unavailable through other methods. As technology develops we’re able to g