Twenty-year home-range dynamics of a white-tailed deer matriline

We examined the seasonal migration and home-range dynamics of a multigeneration white-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus) matriline comprising six females from four generations spanning a 20-year period in northeastern Minnesota. All, from the matriarch to her great-granddaughter, migrated to the same summer and winter ranges, the longest individual record being 14.5 years. Three maternal females concurrently occupied exclusive fawning sites within their ancestral matriarch's summer range, while two nonmaternal females explored new areas and ranged near their mothers. One great-granddaughter expanded her summer range 1 km beyond the matriarch's summer range while essentially vacating half of her ancestors' range and becoming nonmigratory the last 4 years of her life. These data indicate that individual movements of matriline members can potentially expand their ranges beyond the areas occupied by their ancestors through a slow process of small incremental changes. This suggests that the rapid extension of deer range in eastern North America resulted from natal dispersal by yearling deer rather than from the type of home-range expansion reported here.