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Migration Routes of Elk in Cody Herd in Wyoming

Metadata Updated: July 6, 2024

The Cody elk herd migrates across rugged country on the eastern side of the Absaroka Mountains near Cody, WY. This large herd of 6,000-7,000 animals winters in foothill habitat to the south and west of Cody. There are three core winter areas, namely the valleys formed by the North and South Fork of the Shoshone River and the headwaters of the Greybull River north to Meeteetse creek. In spring, the elk that winter along the North Fork of the Shoshone generally follow the river west towards the park, some of them branching up Eagle Creek and other tributaries. The elk that winter in the South Fork of the Shoshone follow it upstream in spring, eventually heading west up Ishawooa Creek and into the Thorofare and Yellowstone National Park. The elk that winter in the upper Greybull River drainage also summer in the Thorofare, but their journey is more arduous. From winter range, they climb nearly 3,000 vertical feet, up and over Needle Mountain, before descending down to the Shoshone River, only to climb again out of the river up to the Thorofare for summer. Some animals in this herd make migrations as far as 117 miles, while others make shorter migration; the mean migration length is 58 miles. Like the Clarks Fork herd, this herd is also partially migratory, with resident animals typically exhibiting higher levels of calf recruitment. Since most of the migrations of this herd cross public forest and park land, the most pressing management issue is to maintain strong collaborative relationships with the large landowners that privately manage much of the winter range these elk return to each autumn. These data provide the location of migration routes for Elk (Cervus canadensis) in the Cody herd in Wyoming. They were developed from Brownian bridge movement models using 109 migration sequences collected from a sample size of 28 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.

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Dates

Metadata Created Date June 1, 2023
Metadata Updated Date July 6, 2024

Metadata Source

Harvested from DOI EDI

Additional Metadata

Resource Type Dataset
Metadata Created Date June 1, 2023
Metadata Updated Date July 6, 2024
Publisher U.S. Geological Survey
Maintainer
@Id http://datainventory.doi.gov/id/dataset/e0287d304b00acaa578440f7dcf5ed47
Identifier USGS:5f8db60882ce32418791d568
Data Last Modified 20201109
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://datainventory.doi.gov/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
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Harvest Source Id 52bfcc16-6e15-478f-809a-b1bc76f1aeda
Harvest Source Title DOI EDI
Metadata Type geospatial
Old Spatial -110.534,43.8642,-108.8867,44.7018
Publisher Hierarchy White House > U.S. Department of the Interior > U.S. Geological Survey
Source Datajson Identifier True
Source Hash e739dd8eafe1cda1d279e2b0fd4b42e849662b58d0c3734aeb0d34890d750b4f
Source Schema Version 1.1
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