State-Wide Connectivity of Deer and Other Big Game in Nebraska

The ability of wildlife to move across the landscape, either as part of their annual cycle to exploit different habitats at critical life stages or in response to ecosystem change and resource availability, is fundamental to population viability and health. Landscape features, such as roads, fences, and agriculture may impede movement, thereby disrupting migration corridors that link areas important at different stages in the annual cycle and (or) sundering areas that were once connected. Disruption of migration routes or reduction of dispersal opportunities can increase extirpation risk beyond the effects of habitat loss alone. The perception of what constitutes a barrier to movement varies among species, populations, and individuals, as migration and dispersal depend not only on capabilities and propensity but also upon behavioral decisions made by individuals. Multi-species approaches that assess movement of individuals across the landscape are needed to identify shared features that impede or facilitate movement as single species approaches may fail to capture the influence of topographies, habitats, and landscape structures on the overall connectivity of wildlife.
Nebraska provides a complex mosaic of habitats for large game species to navigate. Although the movement ecology of these species has been studied individually, relatively little is known about the extent to which these species share common corridors or barriers to movement. We aim to address this information need through comparative movement analysis across multiple large game species in western Nebraska as well as a state-wide assessment of genomic connectivity in mule deer and white-tailed deer. We will develop statistical methods to synthesize existing telemetry data with novel genetic data derived from existing tissue samples for six big game species (wild turkey, mule deer, white-tailed deer, elk, pronghorn, and bighorn sheep). 

Goals

The ability of wildlife to move across the landscape, either as part of their annual cycle to exploit different habitats at critical life stages or in response to ecosystem change and resource availability, is fundamental to population viability and health. Disruption of migration routes or reduction of dispersal opportunities can increase extirpation risk beyond the effects of habitat loss alone.