Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Research Units Program: Wyoming
Education, Research and Technical Assistance for Managing Our Natural Resources

Long-distance wildlife migrations have been declining globally due to factors such as anthropogenic disturbances and environmental change. Understanding how migration strategies are learned can help us evaluate the capacity migratory taxa have to respond to a changing world. The first goal of this project is evaluating how moose learn to migrate and develop their own migrations after separating from their mother. The second is to evaluate survival and causes of mortality for moose in the Jackson Herd in their early years of life (9 months – 3½ years). This is the first time these questions have been explored in Jackson moose. The project is a collaboration of researchers across multiple agencies and includes the University of Wyoming, the Wyoming Game and Fish Department, and the Teton Conservation District. This work will further our scientific understanding of migratory taxa by evaluating how moose learn to migrate. This will not only benefit the migratory moose of Jackson but could help the management of migratory populations across the globe.