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Show Mammals Big game and fur animals currently receive the most management consideration from resource administrators and sportsmen. Some of Utah's best big game habitat is located in the Bonneville Unit area. The main big game species are mule deer, elk, and mooseo A huntable population of antelope exists along the western edge of the Unit and a few big horn sheep and mountain goats are also found in this region. The sheep and goats are not hunted. The Bonneville Unit includes all or part of 18 State " Deer Herd Management Units" totaling approximately 8,300 square miles of summer and winter habitat. About 3,600 square miles of this total is classified as winter range. Usually, it is the quality and quantity of the habitat available during the critical winter months that ultimately determine the status of the deer population. For the last five years, the average annual deer harvest for Utah is estimated to 71 have been 89,392 animals. L The harvest for the Unit area, during the same period, averaged 32,120 animals„ The hunting success ratio for both the State and the Unit area has averaged about 50 percent. During the ISOO's elk herds were prevalent throughout the mountainous areas of northern and central Utah. Unrestricted hunting following settlement eliminated most of the elk from their natural ranges by the turn of the century,, Elk were first given protection with closed seasons in about 1898. Animals from Montana and Wyoming were transplanted onto the original ranges during the early 1900* s in order to re- establish the elk herds. At present elk populations are expanding. The Diamond Fork- Strawberry Reservoir area contains an expanding elk herd and in 1972 was designated as a State " Elk Herd Management Unit." There is also an additional area of habitat currently being utilized by a developing herd of elk located northeast of Strawberry Reservoir in the Currant Creek- Rock Creek area. Within the Unit are three " Elk Herd Management Units" and additional habitat total 12' about 3,300 square miles of suitable summer and winter habitat. The principal elk herd in the Unit lives in the mountainous area southeast of Utah Lake. During the past five years the Statewide legal harvest of elk has averaged 1,495 animals.' The recorded legal harvest for the Bonneville Unit area has averaged about 100 animals. Because of substantial illegal kills in non- managed areas the trend has been to administratively designate areas containing huntable populations of elk. 142 |