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

Migration Routes of Elk in Clarks Fork, Wyoming

Metadata Updated: October 29, 2025

Elk within the Clarks Fork herd migrate though some of the most rugged and remote terrain in the lower 48 states. The herd, which numbers around 3,000, winters in the Sunlight Basin and the Absaroka foothills just west of Cody, WY. Winter ranges are a mix of sagebrush hills and lodgepole pine forests, within expansive private ranchlands. During migration, animals travel an average one-way distance of 33 miles, with some animals migrating as far as 67 miles. Spring migrations off of winter range head west towards Yellowstone National Park, up several drainages that flow out of the Absaroka Mountains, including the Clarks Fork of the Yellowstone, Crandall Creek, and smaller creeks to the south. Summer ranges consist of alpine and subalpine meadows embedded within spruce-fir and lodgepole pine forest that are predominately within the Park. The Clarks Fork herd is partially migratory, with migrants and resident animals mixing on winter range (residents tend to winter along the foothills further east). Over the last decade, the migratory segment has seen poor recruitment due to drought and increased rates of predation by grizzly bears and wolves, while resident animals have been more productive and continue to expand to the east. Aside from the poor recruitment, the migrations are relatively safe because most of the routes traverse lands within the National Forest or National Park system. These data provide the location of winter ranges for elk (Bison bison) in Yellowstone National Park. They were developed from Brownian bridge movement models using 107 winter sequences collected from a sample size of 46 animals comprising GPS locations collected every 2-8 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 October 29, 2025

Metadata Source

Harvested from DOI USGS DCAT-US

Additional Metadata

Resource Type Dataset
Metadata Created Date September 13, 2025
Metadata Updated Date October 29, 2025
Publisher U.S. Geological Survey
Maintainer
Identifier http://datainventory.doi.gov/id/dataset/usgs-5f8db5ff82ce32418791d566
Data Last Modified 2020-11-09T00:00:00Z
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 75a3ca8a-88ff-4285-b1da-5b5e8c2591ee
Harvest Source Id 2b80d118-ab3a-48ba-bd93-996bbacefac2
Harvest Source Title DOI USGS DCAT-US
Metadata Type geospatial
Old Spatial -110.2697, 44.5018, -109.0049, 45.1409
Source Datajson Identifier True
Source Hash 70cb6d2afdbf628c689b9c1f811ce5d8a75f90dba97940d69ddb775461167bc2
Source Schema Version 1.1
Spatial {"type": "Polygon", "coordinates": -110.2697, 44.5018, -110.2697, 45.1409, -109.0049, 45.1409, -109.0049, 44.5018, -110.2697, 44.5018}

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