Our fenceline marks the border of the Mesa big game winter range. It’s located south of Pinedale, Wyoming and is closed to motorized traffic from Jan. 1 through April 30 every year so that the mule deer and pronghorn antelope can spend winter days free from disturbance. This 76,000-acre range covers the broad expanse between …
Tag: mule deer
December in the sheep pasture
The Wind River Mountains are magnificent in their snow-covered spendor, but the sagebrush rangelands still contain only a scattering of snow. The image below is our New Fork River pasture where the sheep are currently located, taken at sunrise earlier this week. It was about -8 degrees that morning, which is a typical overnight low …
Muley ear notches
Saw these two young bucks in the neighborhood today, and was curious that they both have ear notches. The best reason I’ve heard so far is that the bucks do a little scrapping, and ears take a bit of a beating. The notches are not research-related. I’m still open to other theories if anyone has …
Bitterly cold
When a winter storm hit Tuesday morning, mule deer came pouring down the migration trail from the mountains, crossing what has become a very famous migration bottleneck, Trapper’s Point outside of Pinedale, Wyoming. Here’s a group of deer traversing the bottleneck between two rivers and crossing U.S. Highway 191. It is -32 degrees this morning …
Ear notches
I am surprised at how many mule deer I see with notched ears, including this young buck Jim and I encountered today. Theories anyone?I love seeing mule deer at this time of year. The does look so absolutely feminine, and the swollen-necked bucks so masculine.