Expandable and economical long-term collars for juvenile mule deer

We adapted the expandable collars used by others on young mouflon sheep, Ovis musimon, for use on juvenile mule deer, Odocoileus hemionus. We used these collars to investigate survivorship and cause-specific mortality among these cervids during 1994-1998. The collars were economical and simple to construct, and retention rate among 109 juvenile mule deer was >98%. Even after 2.5 years, no collars appeared to fit too tightly and we observed no evidence of injury to animals. These collars offer a dependable and economical alternative to expensive, factory-made, expandable collars.