Description: The North Central pronghorn herd is the only known consistently migratory pronghorn herd in New Mexico, and one of the few pronghorn herds in the west that migrate to higher elevations (7,400 to 10,800 ft). Their winter range includes primarily sagebrush steppe and stretches across the Rio Grande del Norte National Monument from the Rio Grande to the base of the San Juan Mountains. The pronghorn follow two primary migration corridors; a northern corridor follows the San Antonio River southwest of the Pinabetal Mesa and a southern corridor follows the arroyos southwest of San Antonio Mountain to Little Tusas Creek. As their migration continues west and overlaps with the San Antonio elk herd, the pronghorn travel through conifer, deciduous, and mixed forests interspersed with shrublands. High-elevation summer range for North Central pronghorn consists of montane meadows, particularly along the Rio Brazos. Some of the herd crosses U.S. Highway 285 during migration, probably facilitated by lay-down fence that is removed in the winter. Migration routes to higher elevations tend to occur in areas with sparse, woody plant cover; increased canopy cover and woody plant encroachment could influence pronghorn migrations in the future. Fence modifications are ongoing on the Bureau of Land Management lands to facilitate pronghorn movements and use of the landscape. These mapping layers show the location of the migration stopovers for pronghorn (Antilocapra americana) in the North Central herd in New Mexico. They were developed from 60 migration sequences collected from a sample size of 24 animals comprising GPS locations collected every 2-8 hours.
Description: General and Priority elk, mule deer, black bear, pronghorn, and bighorn sheep habitats developed for incorporation into the Western's Governor's Association (WGA) Wildlife Corridors Initiative - Crucial Habitat Assessment Tool (CHAT) complied in April 2013. General and Priority Catagories were developed following guidance from the WGA CHAT Project: States must prioritize SERI occupied habitat into Priority (e.g. crucial winter range, fawning range, migration corridors, etc.) and/or General habitat (e.g. year-round range, winter range, general distribution, etc.). CHAT Project, Western Governor's Association (2012). Crucial habitat areas for elk, deer, pronghorn and bighorn sheep were digitized (at approximately 1:250,000 scale) under direction of New Mexico Game and Fish Department’s species biologists and Big Game Manager. Crucial habitat areas for black bear are catagory levels 1 and 2 selected from a bear model developed by Costello et al. The bear model in use was developed as a result of the 10 year bear ecology study undertaken in New Mexico and completed in 2001 (Costello et al. 2001). The model relies on occurence of vegetation that bears use as cover and forage in the state and elevation. While bears do occur, and breed, outside of the modeled area it is generally in small habitat patches and their occurance there may be ephemeral in nature. The model describes 3 levels of habitat quality but we only use the best quality habitat to estimate the population as a conservative measure.
Copyright Text: New Mexico Department of Game and Fish.
Costello, C.M., D.E. Jones, K.A. Green Hammond, R.M. Inman, K.H. Inman, B.C. Thompson, R.A. Deitner, H.B. Quigley. 2001. A study of black bear ecology in New Mexico with models for population dynamics and habitat suitability. Final Report, Federal Aid in Wildlife Restoration Project W-131-R, New Mexico Department of Game and Fish, Santa Fe, NM. 218 p.