Wild Migrations: Atlas of Wyoming’s Ungulates by Matthew J. Kauffman et al.

Abstract

Reviewed by: Wild Migrations: Atlas of Wyoming’s Ungulates by Matthew J. Kauffman et al. Frances E. Buderman Wild Migrations: Atlas of Wyoming’s Ungulates. By Matthew J. Kauffman, James E. Meacham, Hall Sawyer, Alethea Y. Steingisser, William J. Rudd, and Emilene Ostlind. Corvallis: Oregon State University Press, 2018. xiii + 260 pp. Maps, figures, sources, index. $50.00 cloth. Movement ecology is a growing field within wildlife sciences and management. The focus on movement ecology, and its importance for sustaining populations, has been spurred on by our ability to monitor individual animals for long periods of time across their range via telemetry devices (as opposed to a capture-recapture study in which an area must be actively sampled). This book is focused specifically on the movement and migratory behavior of Wyoming ungulate species, and while the layout is attractive and informative and the content is interesting, the optimal audience is likely the biologist who is not a wildlife specialist. The book begins by describing the Wyoming landscape and the innate components that facilitate, and require, seasonal migration by ungulates. This section is a good overview for the nonspecialist in wildlife, as it defines migration, describes global ungulate migrations, and then focuses specifically on ungulate migrations in Wyoming. The section on migratory ungulates in Wyoming contains a plethora of useful information, such as population size in space and time, migration and life history phenology and diet, and maps that focus on the migration of specific populations. Unfortunately, it is unclear what year is represented by the spatial population size figures and how many individuals are represented on each map. Otherwise, this section contains beautiful and consistent figures across all species. The book then discusses the history of hunting and land conservation, a component that should be interesting to the wildlife biologist and nonspecialist alike. This section then focuses on the creation of Wyoming’s game and fish department and Yellowstone National Park. Particularly interesting, from a management standpoint, are the sections about the interaction of management practices and migratory behavior (e.g., feeding grounds, relocations) and their unanticipated consequences. The section on studying migration covers common methods for monitoring individual movements and an extremely simplified representation of these methods. Not knowing the number of individuals represented on a map is a continuing issue. This section offers little new information for wildlife biologists familiar with telemetry techniques. The sections on threats and conservation continue to provide beautiful maps and visualizations, consistent with the preceding chapters. The threats the authors discuss are certainly comprehensive in their scope, covering fences, rural development, roads, energy development (the primary focus), hunting, disease spread, climate trends, forest structure, and food web disruptions. The last topic was particularly interesting given the cross-taxa management implications. I found the conservation section to be fairly narrow, focusing largely on land acquisitions within the state of Wyoming. The book focuses throughout on the importance of [End Page 121] landscape permeability and sustaining migratory corridors. Its narrative structure results in a book that is pleasant to read. The maps and figures are outstanding. I believe a reader will notice something new each time they look at a page. The structure of the figures is perhaps the most important component for wildlife scientists and conservationists, enabling the figures to convey complex movement information in concise ways. However, many of the sections likely do not contain new information for those more well versed in ungulate movement behavior, unless they are particularly interested in aspects of the conservation of Wyoming ungulate corridors. I believe the audience that would most appreciate this book are those who are interested in, but do not know much about, ungulate movement across the Great Plains, particularly Wyoming. Frances E. Buderman Department of Ecosystem Science and Management Pennsylvania State University Copyright © 2021 Center for Great Plains Studies, University of Nebraska–Lincoln