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California Mule Deer Blue Canyon Stopovers

Metadata Updated: January 21, 2026

The Blue Canyon mule deer herd winters in the western foothills of the Sierra Nevada south of Interstate 80. The winter range includes dense conifer and oak woodland that is shared with a resident portion of the herd on a mix of public and private lands. In the spring, the Blue Canyon herd migrates from their winter range eastward along two main paths both north and south of the Forest Hill Divide to higher elevation terrain near Soda Springs and the crest of the Sierra Nevada in the Granite Chief Wilderness. The summer range includes primarily mixed conifer opening up to high alpine granite near the crest of the Sierra Nevada. The population size is not well known due to limited surveys, but is considered stable to declining, affected primarily by dense overstory and habitat loss. This GPS collaring project was designed as part of a region-wide effort to obtain abundance estimates for deer using fecal DNA and home range analyses, with pinpointing migration routes and identifying winter ranges a secondary priority. Due to the small sample of GPS-tagged mule deer, additional migration routes and winter range areas probably exist beyond the extent of our model output. These mapping layers show the location of the migration stopovers for mule deer (Odocoileus hemionus) in the Blue Canyon population in California. They were developed from 9 migration sequences collected from a sample size of 3 animals comprising GPS locations collected every 1-12 hours.

Access & Use Information

Public: This dataset is intended for public access and use. License: No license information was provided. If this work was prepared by an officer or employee of the United States government as part of that person's official duties it is considered a U.S. Government Work.

Downloads & Resources

Dates

Metadata Created Date January 11, 2026
Metadata Updated Date January 21, 2026

Metadata Source

Harvested from DOI USGS DCAT-US

Additional Metadata

Resource Type Dataset
Metadata Created Date January 11, 2026
Metadata Updated Date January 21, 2026
Publisher U.S. Geological Survey
Maintainer
Identifier http://datainventory.doi.gov/id/dataset/USGS_63650b7dd34ebe442507ce5b
Data Last Modified 2023-10-04T00:00:00Z
Category geospatial
Public Access Level public
Bureau Code 010:12
Metadata Context https://project-open-data.cio.gov/v1.1/schema/catalog.jsonld
Metadata Catalog ID https://ddi.doi.gov/usgs-data.json
Schema Version https://project-open-data.cio.gov/v1.1/schema
Catalog Describedby https://project-open-data.cio.gov/v1.1/schema/catalog.json
Datagov Dedupe Retained 20260121062710
Harvest Object Id 70388468-f724-4d2c-9515-526ee4bb9cb7
Harvest Source Id 2b80d118-ab3a-48ba-bd93-996bbacefac2
Harvest Source Title DOI USGS DCAT-US
Metadata Type geospatial
Old Spatial {"type": "Polygon", "coordinates": -120.6947, 38.9632, -120.6947, 39.3396, -120.2622, 39.3396, -120.2622, 38.9632, -120.6947, 38.9632}
Source Datajson Identifier True
Source Hash 6e0e57326d3c385643c284d61f99237b9a45bed8d782c08039224cd6f92f716e
Source Schema Version 1.1
Spatial {"type": "Polygon", "coordinates": -120.6947, 38.9632, -120.6947, 39.3396, -120.2622, 39.3396, -120.2622, 38.9632, -120.6947, 38.9632}

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