Wildlife Surveys

Wildlife surveys completed in Great Basin National Park during the summer of 2002 included searches for bighorn sheep lambing grounds, bighorn sheep composition counts, monitoring of collared elk movement and elk composition counts.

Studies of bighorn sheep habitat found that potential lambing habitat was likely deficient in the park. However, where the bighorns were actually lambing was unknown. So park staff spent time in the high country in June trying to locate lambing grounds. The search was conducted between Decathon Canyon and Baker Peak and involved "glassing" the terrain with binoculars and spotting scopes. After four days, only the bighorn ram with green eartags was spotted. Remember from previous issues, this ram is now 14 years old! Then on the fithe and last day of our effort, two ewes and a lamb were spotted in Decathon Canyon. Plans are now underway to see what habitat improvements may be needed to enhance the area for bighorn lambing.

Bighorn composition counts, which are held in late August or early September, were not successful this summer. Despite three days of extensive searching, the main group of ewes could not be found. The rams were spotted in the Mt. Washington area. One to three rams have been seen together throughout the summer by park staff and visitors. Efforts will be made this winter to obtain winter composition counts. Composition counts are important because we classify the animals to lambs, ewes and rams allowing us to determine reproductive success and over winter survival, quickly alerting us to potential problems.

Despite elk being present on the south Snake Range for the past 15 years, only antidotal information was available about their ecology. When two cow elk fitted with radio telemetry collars showed up with the herd on the south Snake Range, an opportunity arose to learn just that. We followed the elk to obtain information on movement, seasonal ranges, habitat use, reproductive rates and the number of elk.

The amount of information gathered so far is small, but some generalizations can be made about elk use of the south Snake Range. They are using an area covering almost 9,000 acres between Sacramento Pass and the Hub basin, with the center of activity being in Weaver Creek. Winter range is shaping up to be the west side of the south Snake Range and up on the north Snake Range. The two collared elk go separate ways in the winter. Spring, summer and fall ranges are in the Weaver Creek area. Some time is spent in the park, primarily during the breeding period or rut in late August and September. Habitat use was primarily Pinyon and Juniper forest adjacent to sagebrush/perennial grass openings. Reproductive rates appear to be adequate with a 40 percent cow: calf ratio. This equates to four calves for every 10 cows. Though below what elk are capable of it is enough to promote growth in the herd. Numbers of elk on the south Snake Range are more difficult to determine due to the extensive forest cover. We will use the information gathered to develop an adequate survey technique that provides a reliable estimate of elk numbers. However, we did count 49 elk in one encounter, the highest number ever counted on the south Snake Range.