Table 10. Antelope population characteristics in the Otter Creek 

 area. 



blend together with a slight overall shift to the southern portion 

 of the study area. The northern group still appears to be 

 separated from the rest of the study area. While some larger 

 herds remained intact, more observations in the 1-3 range were 

 recorded than in any other season. 



Antelope fall distribution is shown in Figure 13. The number of 

 observations are greatly reduced because there was only one fall 

 season in the study and antelope are beginning to congregate into 

 their winter herds. Except for a few scattered observations, the 

 antelope seemed to be located in the southern portion of the 

 study area with Threemile Creek as the approximate northern 

 boundary. Five groups larger than 15 were observed and six 

 groups in the 9-15 category were spotted. 



Figure 14 shows the winter antelope distribution. The pattern 

 established during fall was continued as most of the observations 

 were made south of Threemile Creek. A large majority of the 

 antelope were in herds of over 16 individuals. The average 

 group size was 18.4 (Table 9). Since the 1979-80 winter season 

 was quite mild, antelope were free to roam about their range at 

 will. Therefore the areas used during this study probably include 

 more area than that used in more severe winter conditions. 



Vegetation type usage: Antelope were found primarily on the 

 sagebrush/grassland vegetation types (Table 11). Ninety-seven 

 percent of the antelope were observed on this type during the 

 fall and winter seasons. The smallest percentage utilizing 

 sagebrush types was seen in spring 1979, 84 percent. That 

 spring 16 percent were observed in the ponderosa pine grassland 

 subtype. 



27 



