A new report from the Pew Charitable Trust shows climate change, along with other human-caused factors, is altering wildlife migration patterns in Idaho and across the West, leading to less healthy animals and population declines.
The Wyoming Migration Initiative used information from GPS collars on deer, elk, pronghorn and other migratory animals to create the report for Pew. It found that climate change, habitat loss, fences, roads and development are impacting the way wildlife move between summer and winter ranges.
“Most of the information in the (report’s) maps that you see is information we didn’t have even five or 10 years ago,” said Matt Skroch, Pew’s project director for Public Lands and Rivers Conservation, in a phone interview. “That’s what’s new and exciting here. There’s so much more information available today about how animals migrate.”
