80 



Several observations were made alonp; the lower section of Miller 

 Creek and in the upland area between Rosebud Creek and the lower 

 section of Miller Creek (Figure ^9). 



Only 20 white-tailed deer observations were recorded during the 

 study period. No group was larger than eight animals. Analysis 

 of this small amount of data would not have resulted in meaningful 

 conclusions and was not done. 



Antelope 



Population characteristics: A total of 456 antelope were observed 

 on the Greenleaf-Miller area during this six season study. Average 

 eroup sl!2e ranged from a high of28.0 antelope per observation 

 during November 1980 to a low of 1.6 in May 1981 (Table 32). 

 Although no antelope were observed on the study area in February, 

 the winter season had the highest average group size, 21.0 

 antelooe. Soring 1981, saw the erreatest number of antelope 

 observed, 107, and the smallest group size, 3-3 antelope. 



Apparently, antelope move off the study area during winter. This 

 winter was very mild and weather should not have been responsible 

 for the movement. This pooulation is significantly less dense 

 than that observed on Hanging Woman Creek (Martin 1980a) where 

 197.1 antelope per hour were observed during the winter of 1979-80. 

 Winter aerial surveys resulted in l4.7 observations per hour on 

 the Greenleaf-Miller area in I98O-8I. Antelope were less 

 abundant than mule deer in the Greenleaf-Miller study area (Table 25). 



Population structure and production data are presented in Table 33. 

 A large increase in fawns per 100 does was evident from I98O to 

 1981. In 1980 the average for June through August was 32.4 fawns 

 oer 100 does while in I98I the average was 60.5 fawns per 100 does. 

 Wentland (198I) reported a ran<?e from 40 to 75 fawns per 100 does 

 in Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks H.D. 721 for 1972-1979. The 

 Greenleaf-Miller study area is contained within hunting district 

 721. As a percentage of the population, fawns comprised 24.4$ 

 in summer 198O and 31.0$ in summer 198I. 



The percentage of bucks increased slightly from 15.6 in 198O to 

 17.9 in 1981 while the percentage of does decreased from 6O.O 

 in 1980 to 51.2 percent in I98I. 



Distribution ; Antelope spring distribution is shown in Figure 50 , 

 Observations were mostly confined to the northeast quarter of the 

 study area. The biggest concentration occurred in an area encompass- 

 ing the head of Bean Creek, the middle segment of Greenleaf Creek 

 and the bend of Lay Creek. Most of the observations fell into 

 the 1-3 and 4-8 group size categories. 



During the summer months (Figure 51), antelope were found in the 

 same general areas noted during spring. The primary use area 

 increased in size somewhat and shifted slightly to the north. 

 About half of the groups observed were in the 1-3 size category. 

 The 4-8 and 9-15 size groups comprised about 30 and 20 percent of 

 the observations respectively. 



