New migration maps serve as tools to help big game in West

CHEYENNE, WYO. | By MEAD GRUVER (AP) — New maps of big game migrations in the Western U.S. will help identify where human development is getting in the way of animals on the move. Scientists have been using global positioning and statistical analysis to identify precisely where animals such as mule deer, elk and antelope go in pursuit of the best places to spend summer and wait out winter. Homes, roads, fences, oil and gas fields and mining operations increasingly interfere with those migrations. U.S. Geological Survey biologist Matthew Kauffman says the new wildlife migration atlas will help pinpoint places where conservation efforts are most effective.