OCCURRENCE OF CALIFORNIA MULE DEER IN THE SOUTHERN SAN JOAQUIN VALLEY, CALIFORNIA
HOWARD CLARK1, H.T. Harvey & Associates, 423 West Fallbrook, Suite 202, Fresno, California 93711
TRANSACTIONS OF THE WESTERN SECTION ON THE WILDLIFE SOCIETY 40:127-128
The California mule deer (Odocoileus hemionus
californicus) is a large ungulate that utilizes several dif-
ferent plant communities (Wallmo 1981). It is 1 of 5 sub-
species found in California (MacGregor 1976, Cronin and
Bleich 1995). A sixth subspecies, the Colombian black-
tailed deer (O. h. columbianus), is not normally consid-
ered a mule deer (MacGregor 1976). Mule deer normally
occur along the foothills and mountains of the central
Sierra Nevada, the transverse ranges, and the Coast Range
from San Francisco to the Los Angeles basin (Wallmo
1981). Wallmo (1981) noted that California mule deer tend
to favor California oak woodland and chaparral habitats
along the Sierra Nevada foothills.
Mule deer were believed to be moderately abundant in
California prior to the settlement of California (Leopold et
al. 1951). The southern San Joaquin Valley originally con-
tained grassland habitat and California Prairie, with ex-
tensive tule marshes and riparian corridors (Küchler 1977).
Now this area is densely settled, farmed, and basically
devoid of California mule deer (Wallmo 1981, Anderson
and Wallmo 1984, Jameson and Peeters 1988). MacGregor
(1976) and Dasmann (1952) estimate that deer popula-
tions have generally declined as the quality and quantity
of deer habitat has declined in California. Habitat decrease
is believed to be associated with adverse weather, fire
suppression, silvicultural practices, successional
changes, and over-grazing by livestock (MacGregor
1976).
Coordinates of collected mule deer in California were
retrieved from the Museum of Vertebrate Zoology Data
Access, University of California, Berkeley, California, and
mapped using ArcView® (Environmental Systems Re-
search Institute, Redlands, California). Ungulate biolo-
gists and California Depa