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Migration Routes of Elk in Clarks Fork, Wyoming

Metadata Updated: October 28, 2023

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.

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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
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Identifier USGS:5f8db5ff82ce32418791d566
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 29b35705-5889-489d-8649-0f484618f8b5
Harvest Source Id 52bfcc16-6e15-478f-809a-b1bc76f1aeda
Harvest Source Title DOI EDI
Metadata Type geospatial
Old Spatial -110.2697,44.5018,-109.0049,45.1409
Publisher Hierarchy White House > U.S. Department of the Interior > U.S. Geological Survey
Source Datajson Identifier True
Source Hash e22d66d6b5412420b7b2d4e196d41f81cd60784e87dc70c16c3d20a71c96bc56
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}

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