Yellowstone Migrations

Yellowstone's 22.6-million-acre region contains the longest known pathways for mule deer and pronghorn. The distance, movements, and routes rival wildebeests on the Serengeti Plain and caribou in the Arctic.

At the University of Wyoming, Matt Kauffman headed an effort called the Wyoming Migration Initiative, which created a comprehensive atlas of maps to inform public and private land managers. He worked with several colleagues, the Wyoming Game and Fish Department, and Arthur Middleton, an ecologist and research scientist at Yale University.

Middleton likes to compare Yellowstone’s migrations to the circulatory system in a human body, carrying nourishment everywhere. What he hopes is that the system doesn’t suffer its own version of a coronary episode.

I hope you enjoy the sights in this short video!