Tagging studies of mule deer fawns on the Hanford Site, 1969 to 1977

Technical Report · Mon Oct 01 04:00:00 EDT 1979

DOI:https://doi.org/10.2172/5637898· OSTI ID:5637898

Eberhardt, L E; Hedlund, J D; Rickard, W H

From 1969 to 1977, 346 mule deer (Odocoileus hemionus) fawns were tagged and released on islands and shoreline habitat associated with the Columbia River on the Hanford Site in south-central Washington. The purpose was to determine the movement of mule deer along the Columbia River shoreline from the Hanford Site through tag recovery. Twenty-one tagged deer have been killed primarily by hunters near the Hanford Site or on areas of the Hanford Site open to public access. Movements of up to 113 km from Hanford have been documented. Although the Columbia River at Hanford is one of the largest and most swift-flowing rivers in North America it is not an impassable barrier to mule deer. River islands are important and perhaps critical fawining habitat for the local deer herd. The selection of these islands by pregnant female deer is apparently influenced by predation, human access, and recreational use of islands. The number of fawns captured decreased during the latter years of the study (1974 to 1977). This is probably a reflection of an actual decrease in deer productivity, particularly along the upper stretch of the Columbia flowing through the Hanford Site. The reasons for this apparent decrease are unkown.

• Research Organization: Battelle Pacific Northwest Labs., Richland, WA (USA)
• DOE Contract Number: EY-76-C-06-1830
• OSTI ID: 5637898
• Report Number(s): PNL-3147
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

510500* -- Environment
Terrestrial-- Site Resource & Use Studies-- (-1989)
54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES
550100 -- Behavioral Biology
59 BASIC BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES
ANIMALS
COLUMBIA RIVER
DATA
DATA ACQUISITION
DATA FORMS
DEER
EXPERIMENTAL DATA
FEMALES
HABITAT
HANFORD RESERVATION
INFORMATION
ISOLATED VALUES
MAMMALS
NATIONAL ORGANIZATIONS
NUMERICAL DATA
POPULATION DYNAMICS
RIVERS
RUMINANTS
STREAMS
SURFACE WATERS
US DOE
US ERDA
US ORGANIZATIONS
VERTEBRATES