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Migration Routes of Elk in the Jackson Herd in Wyoming

Metadata Updated: July 6, 2024

Elk within the Jackson herd have been the focus of management for over a century. The herd, which numbers between 9,000 -13,000, winters in Jackson Hole. Most of the herd winters in the sagebrush basins and irrigated fields of the National Elk Refuge, with less than a quarter of the herd wintering in the Gros Ventre drainage to the east. Migrating animals travel an average one-way distance of 39 miles, with some migrating as far as 168 miles. The herd is partially migratory, containing both migrant and residents. In spring, the migrants move north on either side of Jackson Lake, into the eastern foothills of the Teton Range and into the upper drainages of the Snake River and the southern portion of Yellowstone National Park. A smaller segment migrates east up the Gros Ventre River drainage and its upper tributaries. A study by the National Elk Refuge documented a long-term reduction in the migratory segment of the herd between 1978 and 2012. This trend is thought to be driven by declining calf recruitment of the migratory segment. Few obstacles to migration exist for this herd, which moves through a vast expanse of habitats managed by either the National Forest or National Park system. These data provide the location of migration routes for Elk (Cervus canadensis) in the Jackson herd in Wyoming. They were developed from Brownian bridge movement models using 595 migration sequences collected from a sample size of 247 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
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Identifier USGS:5f8db61982ce32418791d56d
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
Harvest Object Id ad5bd56c-8c74-4e45-920c-4d3f13a36a5a
Harvest Source Id 52bfcc16-6e15-478f-809a-b1bc76f1aeda
Harvest Source Title DOI EDI
Metadata Type geospatial
Old Spatial -111.0083,43.2007,-109.7597,44.3205
Publisher Hierarchy White House > U.S. Department of the Interior > U.S. Geological Survey
Source Datajson Identifier True
Source Hash 694dc8594bc22847b7b5349c57ef15c15e96be53e8723c80aee4430089077c32
Source Schema Version 1.1
Spatial {"type": "Polygon", "coordinates": -111.0083, 43.2007, -111.0083, 44.3205, -109.7597, 44.3205, -109.7597, 43.2007, -111.0083, 43.2007}

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