Reproductive success of mule deer in a natural gas development area

摘要

Natural gas development is increasing across North America and causing concern over the potential impacts on wildlife populations and their habitat, particularly for ungulate species. Understanding how this development impacts reproductive success metrics that are influential for ungulate population dynamics is important to guide management of ungulates. However, the influences of natural gas development on reproductive success metrics of mule deer Odocoileus hemionus have not been studied. We used statistical models to examine the influence of natural gas development and temporal factors on reproductive success metrics of mule deer in the Piceance Basin, northwest Colorado during 2012–2014. We focused on study areas with relatively high or low levels of natural gas development. Pregnancy and in utero fetal rates were high and statistically indistinguishable between study areas. Fetal survival rates increased over time and survival was lower in the high versus low development study areas in 2012 possibly influenced by drought coupled with habitat loss and fragmentation associated with development. Our novel results suggest managers should be concerned with the influences of development on fetal survival, particularly during extreme environmental conditions (e.g. drought) and our results can be used to guide development planning and/or mitigation. Developers and wildlife managers should continue to collaborate on development planning, such as implementing habitat treatments to improve forage availability and quality, minimizing disturbance to hiding and foraging habitat particularly during parturition, and implementing directional drilling to minimize pad disturbance density to increase fetal survival in developed areas.