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Migration Routes of Elk in the Jemez Herd in New Mexico

Metadata Updated: October 30, 2025

The elk (Cervus canadensis) of the Jemez herd reside primarily in and around the Valles Caldera National Preserve, west of Los Alamos, NM and along the mesa tops to the north and west of the Valles Caldera. The area has experienced two wildfires, the stand replacing Las Conchas Fire and the mixed severity Thompson Ridge fire, within the last decade, burning a total of 180,555 acres. The data used in this report was collected to examine the responses of elk to these wildfires and forest restoration treatments. The Jemez herd is only partially migratory, with residents that consistently remain on the Valles Caldera and individuals that travel to the surrounding lower elevation slopes depending on the year and snowpack levels. The most consistent migration during winter was south towards Bandelier National Monument, while a few individuals migrated east to the Santa Clara Indian Reservation or west to Lake Fork Mesa. Moreover, while most individuals returned to the Caldera in the early spring, some migrated north to the higher elevations of the La Grulla Plateau. These migrations were relatively short, averaging only 14 miles with the longest only reaching 28 miles. The Caldera contains a mix of ponderosa pine forests, mixed-conifer forests, and open grasslands, while the lower elevation slopes are predominantly pinyon-juniper woodlands. The primary challenge for individuals migrating would be crossing NM State Route 4 when traveling to Bandelier National Monument. These data provide the location of migration routes for elk from the Jemez Herd in New Mexico. They were developed from Brownian Bridge movement models using 61 migration sequences collected from a sample size of 24 adult elk comprising GPS locations collected every 5 or 6 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 September 13, 2025
Metadata Updated Date October 30, 2025

Metadata Source

Harvested from DOI USGS DCAT-US

Additional Metadata

Resource Type Dataset
Metadata Created Date September 13, 2025
Metadata Updated Date October 30, 2025
Publisher U.S. Geological Survey
Maintainer
Identifier http://datainventory.doi.gov/id/dataset/usgs-620e4aa1d34e6c7e83baa358
Data Last Modified 2022-04-07T00:00:00Z
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 ac692204-acd3-470c-af5f-cf2b6a31f1b9
Harvest Source Id 2b80d118-ab3a-48ba-bd93-996bbacefac2
Harvest Source Title DOI USGS DCAT-US
Metadata Type geospatial
Old Spatial -106.6117, 35.7352, -106.2712, 36.1370
Source Datajson Identifier True
Source Hash 4bcd7572444eee52169c235a098c79970133984604f4d1b7103a29c607ce1c1e
Source Schema Version 1.1
Spatial {"type": "Polygon", "coordinates": -106.6117, 35.7352, -106.6117, 36.1370, -106.2712, 36.1370, -106.2712, 35.7352, -106.6117, 35.7352}

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