Skip to main content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Official websites use .gov
A .gov website belongs to an official government organization in the United States.

Secure .gov websites use HTTPS
A lock ( ) or https:// means you’ve safely connected to the .gov website. Share sensitive information only on official, secure websites.

Skip to content

Idaho and Nevada Elk Inside Desert Migration Routes

Metadata Updated: November 20, 2025

The Inside Desert elk herd comprises part of an Idaho–Nevada metapopulation that primarily uses winter ranges in Idaho and summer ranges in Nevada (fig. 37). Inside Desert elk migrate from their winter range near the confluence of the Bruneau River and Clover Creek in Idaho, following the western edge of the Inside Desert along the Bruneau and Jarbidge Rivers to their summer range in the Jarbidge Mountains of Nevada. The migration route for part of the Inside Desert elk herd is divided and generally follows Clover Creek to a summer range near Elk Mountain in Nevada. Elevations range from 4,390 ft (1,338 m) at Lookout Butte in Idaho, to 8,815 ft (2,687 m) at Elk Mountain, and to 9,502 ft (2,896 m) in the Jarbidge Mountains. Winter range comprises a patchy mosaic of intact native shrubland communities consisting of sagebrush, native bunchgrasses like Leymus cinereus (basin wildrye) and Festuca idahoensis (Idaho fescue), and past wildfire scars with extensive establishment of nonnative vegetation like cheatgrass and Brassica spp. (mustard). The summer range consists of high-elevation mountain brush communities including antelope bitterbrush, western serviceberry, snowbush, communities of quaking aspen, mountain-mahogany, and fir. Much of the high-elevation summer range is intact and considered some of the most productive elk habitat in Nevada. Apart from hunter harvest, adult survival is high for Inside Desert elk, and calf recruitment is usually higher than thresholds required for stable population growth (K. Huebner, Nevada Department of Wildlife, written commun., 2023). These mapping layers show the location of the migration routes for elk (Cervus canadensis) in the Inside Desert population in Idaho and Nevada. They were developed from 51 migration sequences collected from a sample size of 23 animals comprising GPS locations collected every ~ 8-12.5 hours.

Access & Use Information

Public: This dataset is intended for public access and use. License: No license information was provided. If this work was prepared by an officer or employee of the United States government as part of that person's official duties it is considered a U.S. Government Work.

Downloads & Resources

Dates

Metadata Created Date September 13, 2025
Metadata Updated Date November 20, 2025

Metadata Source

Harvested from DOI USGS DCAT-US

Additional Metadata

Resource Type Dataset
Metadata Created Date September 13, 2025
Metadata Updated Date November 20, 2025
Publisher U.S. Geological Survey
Maintainer
Identifier http://datainventory.doi.gov/id/dataset/usgs-67917581d34ea6a4002bfaac
Data Last Modified 2025-02-06T00:00:00Z
Category geospatial
Public Access Level public
Bureau Code 010:12
Metadata Context https://project-open-data.cio.gov/v1.1/schema/catalog.jsonld
Metadata Catalog ID https://ddi.doi.gov/usgs-data.json
Schema Version https://project-open-data.cio.gov/v1.1/schema
Catalog Describedby https://project-open-data.cio.gov/v1.1/schema/catalog.json
Harvest Object Id 537ab8f8-cf49-4973-8638-6d6b998be15d
Harvest Source Id 2b80d118-ab3a-48ba-bd93-996bbacefac2
Harvest Source Title DOI USGS DCAT-US
Metadata Type geospatial
Source Datajson Identifier True
Source Hash c007f2145e8ef44e62071e3056a7194862d11e5661728d7536f2df43a8acca78
Source Schema Version 1.1

Didn't find what you're looking for? Suggest a dataset here.