Standard Operating Procedures: Mule Deer Population Monitoring

Griffith, Brad

The instructions and sampling method for population count of mule deer; includes procedures, maps, and data analysis guidlines. Mule deer are large mammals that annually migrate significant distances through and outside of the Monument and Preserve. Mule deer are also easy to observe and identify even by inexperienced observers. This makes them good candidates for monitoring. The standard operating procedures were originally developed over a three-year period, 1980-1982, concurrent with a study of ecological characteristics of the mule deer herd which summers on CRMO. Deer surveys have continued since that time. The results of the mule deer study are presented in Report B83-2 of the Cooperative Park Studies Unit, University of Idaho. The deer monitoring program was designed to provide yearly indices to the Craters of the Moon mule deer population level, herd productivity, and over winter fawn survival. Since the Craters herd does not exclusively occupy National Park Service lands, the objective is to obtain information which will complement data obtained by Idaho Fish and Game (IDFG) and Bureau of Land Management (BLM) programs. In the 1994 revision of the SOP's, the permanent vegetation transect monitoring has been removed, as this program has been incorporated into a vegetation trends monitoring program established in 1992. In addition, the section on survey methods has been clarified and the section regarding Procedures for Data Analysis has been broken down and detailed to accommodate a fairly rapid turn-over of staff with varying mathematical skill levels. The procedures were again revised in 2007. The survey has remained essentially the same but this revision was largely done to reflect technological improvements in data storage and analysis. In November of 2000 the size of the monument was increased by approximately 700,000 acres. Approximately 2/3 of this area is managed by the National Park Service and the remainder by the Bureau of Land Management. The lands added to NPS management in 2000 were reclassified as a National Preserve in 2002. Mule deer are found throughout this area. This monitoring program is limited to the Craters of the Moon deer herd. This herd utilizes most of the NPS monument as well as the adjacent Preserve and non-NPS lands in the Pioneer Mountains. By late summer and early fall the herd is primarily concentrated in the Little Cottonwood Creek and Leech Creek drainages where perennial water sources are located.