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California Mule Deer Kern River Routes

Metadata Updated: September 17, 2025

The Kern River deer herd includes primarily California mule deer (Odocoileus hemionus californicus), but some Inyo mule deer (Odocoileus hemionus inyoensis) associate with California mule deer on the summer range. The population size peaked at 11,000 individuals in 1949, but in recent decades numbers have decreased to an estimated 3,500 deer in 1995 and 2,000 deer in 2001. The population size estimate is now, conservatively, approximately 4,000 individuals owing primarily to habitat expansion by the 2001 McNally Fire (California Department of Fish and Wildlife unpublished data). The Kern River herd winters in Sequoia National Forest north of Johnsondale and east of Slate Mountain. In the spring, they migrate northward to an area by Redrocks Meadows and along the Kern Canyon ridgeline to their summer range in Sequoia National Park. The herd’s annual range spans the watersheds of the Kern and Little Kern rivers in eastern Tulare County. Elevations range from 2,500 ft on the southern slopes of the winter range to over 11,000 ft on the northern summer range. Telemetry data over the past two decades show considerable mixing between this herd and the Manache herd on their summer ranges. Further research may support the hypothesis that these herds are actually sub-herds of a larger population. These mapping layers show the location of the migration routes for mule deer (Odocoileus hemionus) in the Kern River population in California. They were developed from 69 migration sequences collected from a sample size of 27 animals comprising GPS locations collected every 2 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 September 14, 2025
Metadata Updated Date September 17, 2025

Metadata Source

Harvested from DOI USGS DCAT-US

Additional Metadata

Resource Type Dataset
Metadata Created Date September 14, 2025
Metadata Updated Date September 17, 2025
Publisher U.S. Geological Survey
Maintainer
Identifier http://datainventory.doi.gov/id/dataset/usgs-63650bd1d34ebe442507ce81
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
Harvest Object Id 8f134cde-ed7f-49bd-a623-996e45344d5a
Harvest Source Id 2b80d118-ab3a-48ba-bd93-996bbacefac2
Harvest Source Title DOI USGS DCAT-US
Metadata Type geospatial
Old Spatial -118.6650, 35.9858, -118.1892, 36.5671
Source Datajson Identifier True
Source Hash 0c0198102960100b0c2cbeb24e3b3cf637321b3322fbbaadd02afc941e0d9048
Source Schema Version 1.1
Spatial {"type": "Polygon", "coordinates": -118.6650, 35.9858, -118.6650, 36.5671, -118.1892, 36.5671, -118.1892, 35.9858, -118.6650, 35.9858}

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