The past severe winter is still reverberating through wildlife populations. In Wyoming, biologists are concerned about antelope numbers as many have died due to weather and bacterial pneumonia, according to Wyoming Public Radio.
Historically, about 200 antelope use a 200-mile migration pathway that traverses between the Green River Basin to Grand Teton National Park; however, this year, park biologists only counted nine antelope though they estimate at least 25 used the route.
“We were sort of on pins and needles here, while we were waiting to see if the [antelope] would return,” said Sarah Dewey, a wildlife biologist with Grand Teton National Park. “And so the good news is that some of them did.”
Dewey wasn’t alone. In fact, because of high winterkill among members of the Sublette antelope herd, the Wyoming Game and Fish Department estimated a decrease in about 50% of the herd members.
“We expected that we would see reduced numbers just because of the severity of the winter on the winter range,” said Dewey, noting that fawn survival is linked to learning summer and winter migration pathways. “If those fawns survive till the end of the summer, and make that migration, that knowledge will be passed on to that next generation.”
Biologists will recount antelope at the end of the summer to get a better understanding of herd numbers.
“The migration is why we have [antelope] here in Grand Teton National Park in the summer. And so they are a native species to the park,” said Dewey. “And so of course, we want to be able to conserve them to have them be able to come back so that they can still play their ecological role in this ecosystem.“
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