May IAK special issue - 16

PROJECT PROFILES
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On a mission for you
The Wyoming Game and Fish Department works throughout the year to fulfill the mission
of " conserving wildlife, serving people. " A variety of projects, surveys and efforts are
underway across Wyoming to meet this charge. Some highlights of recent work include:
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Seeking sauger: The Casper Region fisheries management
crew is conducting research to evaluate the success
of sauger reintroduction in the North Platte River. The
crew is using radio telemetry to evaluate the fish's ability
to migrate upstream of the Orin Weir. Most sauger
are believed to occur in Glendo Reservoir and the river
upstream to the weir. Sauger are a previously extirpated
native species that was reintroduced to the North Platte
River in 2017.
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Mule deer in the Bighorns: Thirty-five new GPS collars
were deployed in March and 23 recovered collars were
re-deployed in December 2021 on mule deer as part of the
North Bighorns Mule Deer Movement Study, which began
two years ago. The funding for the new collars came from
a Bureau of Land Management wildlife grant. There have
been 130 mule deer does collared since the study began.
The goals of the study are to identify mule deer movements
in the northern Bighorn Mountains, evaluate seasonal
range and habitat use, identify habitat improvement and
conservation opportunities and document vital rates.
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Winter bat study: Bat monitoring continued at Cave
Creek Cave on Shirley Mountain this winter. Understanding
where bats spend the winter is critical to looking
out for white-nose syndrome, a fungal disease that kills
hibernating bats by causing them to burn through their
energy. Pseudogymnoascus destructans (Pd) - the fungus
that causes white-nose syndrome in bats - was recently
identified in caves in Carbon and Platte counties.
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Uinta deer captures: Fifty deer from the Uinta deer herd
were collared in mid-March as part of an ongoing study
with Game and Fish and the Wyoming Migration Initiative.
Blood and fecal samples were collected from each
deer to study movements, complete migration data and
continue to work to reduce wildlife-vehicle collisions on
roadways. A capture team used netguns from helicopters
and collected samples on each deer where it was netted,
limiting stress on the animal.
Bighorn sheep collaring: Laramie Region wildlife personnel
fitted GPS collars on more than two dozen bighorn
sheep ewes in the Laramie Peak and Douglas Creek herds
in February. Collared sheep in the Laramie Peak herd are
part of an ongoing disease surveillance study that hopes
to identify respiratory pathogens that are known to affect
bighorn sheep. Data from the Douglas Creek herd will
be used in habitat selection to prioritize future habitat
projects, and will provide resource use comparisons prior
to and after the 2020 Mullen Creek fire.
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Amphibian acoustic project: Frogs and toads can be
hard to see, but their breeding calls can carry over long
distances. Game and Fish recently developed models that
allow a computer, rather than a person, to scan recordings
and pick out frog and toad calls. Remote, acoustic
recorders are often placed in areas to detect calls and
help monitor species, but they result in many hours of
recordings that must be reviewed.
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Pronghorn movements: A pilot project with Game
and Fish and the Wyoming Migration Initiative through
the University of Wyoming started in March when 15
pronghorn were collared north of Pathfinder Reservoir in
the Casper Region to study pronghorn movements. This is
an area where potential long-distance movements occur
with pronghorn that spend summer months in the Beaver
Rim and Sweetwater Rocks areas and winter to the east
toward Pathfinder Hill.
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Jackson moose: Game and Fish deployed an additional
seven GPS collars on cow moose between Jackson and
Wilson this winter to learn more about where and how
frequently moose cross Wyoming highways 22 and 390
near the Snake River Bridge. This project started in 2019
by Game and Fish and the Wyoming Department of Transportation,
and other partners have gotten involved. Twenty-eight
moose have been collared and 18 are currently
being tracked. Information is used to plan locations of
wildlife underpasses as part of WYDOT's Snake River
Bridge Replacement Project. Construction begins next year.
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May IAK special issue

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of May IAK special issue