Seasonal use was not exclusive to an area, even for 

 migratory deer. Rather, a preponderance of seasonal use was 

 within an area. For example, 79% of spring-summer 

 observations of female 1577 were in the southern portion of 

 her home range and 81% of autumn-winter observations were in 

 the northern portion of her home range. Half of the 21% of 

 spring-summer relocations that were on "autumn-winter range" 

 occurred during the dry summer of 1980 when she apparently 

 made use of the more abundant succulent forage still available 

 on steep, north-facing slopes not grazed by cattle on the 

 northern area. 



The intensity of use pattern for this migratory deer 

 (Fig. 8.7) was even less uniform than that for a resident deer 

 (Fig. 8.6B). A total of 29.1% of all relocations were within 

 a 1.4 km 2 area of autumn-winter range and 39.6% of all 

 relocations were within a 1.2 km 2 area of spring-summer range. 

 Combined, 68.7% of all relocations of female 1577 during 5 

 years were within an area that comprised 13.3% (2.6 km 2 ) of 

 the life PHR. Although not intensively used over the 5 year 

 period, other areas were important to the survival of this 

 deer. Auxiliary winter range areas in the northern portion of 

 her home range were used during periods of deep snow. Those 

 areas included the most northern portion of her PHR, used only 

 during the extremely severe winter of 1977-78. 



Areas not intensively used by this deer were probably 

 important in that they represented the process of finding 

 alternate winter areas and areas where forage remained 

 succulent longest. Almost all deer occasionally displayed 

 unusual or unexplainable temporary movements outside of normal 

 home ranges. Some movements may have been related to 

 undocumented disturbances, but also may have been random 

 exploratory movements that resulted in familiarity with 

 alternative areas of use. We also may have classified some 

 movements of deer as unusual because we did not know their 

 complete history. For example, a female captured and marked as 

 an adult may have dispersed to the area of capture as a 

 yearling, but made occasional trips back to her natal area. 



A variation of the yearlong resident pattern also was 

 evident for some deer (Fig. 8.8). During 3 years, female 0476 

 displayed a pattern typical of residents and her annual PHR 

 varied from 1.7-4.8 km. She occurred within the same area 

 during 2 other years, but moved to auxiliary winter areas 

 during 2 very severe winters (points B, winter 1977-78 and 

 points C, winter 1978-79; Fig. 8.8). During most years and 

 snow conditions, her normal winter area was at the northeast 

 corner of her home range. During 1977-78, she did not move to 

 auxiliary winter range until early February, after 2 months of 

 deep snow. Subseguent snowstorms resulted in her movement 



226 



