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Migration Stopovers of Elk in the Jemez Herd in New Mexico

Metadata Updated: October 28, 2023

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 stopovers 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 June 1, 2023
Metadata Updated Date October 28, 2023

Metadata Source

Harvested from DOI EDI

Additional Metadata

Resource Type Dataset
Metadata Created Date June 1, 2023
Metadata Updated Date October 28, 2023
Publisher U.S. Geological Survey
Maintainer
@Id http://datainventory.doi.gov/id/dataset/d1dac1d74af743114d470a1215efbfba
Identifier USGS:620e4aa6d34e6c7e83baa35a
Data Last Modified 20220407
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 aaaa4165-4260-44f1-a2b8-085fdfe71bf8
Harvest Source Id 52bfcc16-6e15-478f-809a-b1bc76f1aeda
Harvest Source Title DOI EDI
Metadata Type geospatial
Old Spatial -106.5548,35.7683,-106.3245,36.0771
Publisher Hierarchy White House > U.S. Department of the Interior > U.S. Geological Survey
Source Datajson Identifier True
Source Hash ed17f6ae6d8df0895f56150f0ba907e5d16bd5f1e92530445df54de6465d9cd6
Source Schema Version 1.1
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