The study, conducted by wildlife biologist Nancy Mathews, showed deer rely on very small home ranges, as compact as one-half square mile in size. ...

The bucks, Mathews said, travel five to seven miles from their home range to establish new territories. So efforts to understand the spread of CWD may very well involve more study of how the young bucks move, she added.


"A big key for understanding transmission," Mathews said, "is young bucks. They are the only segment of the population that makes permanent movement out of their home ranges."