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Spatial Extent of Data

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Migration Corridors of Elk in the Jemez Herd in New Mexico

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 corridors 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.

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Author(s) Matthew J Kauffman orcid, Blake H Lowrey orcid, Jeffrey Beck, Jodi Berg orcid, Scott Bergen, Joel Berger orcid, James W Cain orcid, Sarah Dewey, Jennifer Diamond, Orrin Duvuvuei, Julien Fattebert orcid, Jeff Gagnon, Julie Garcia, Evan Greenspan orcid, Embere Hall, Glenn Harper, Stan Harter, Kent Hersey, Pat Hnilicka, Mark Hurley, Lee Knox, Art Lawson, Eric Maichak, James Meacham, Jerod Merkle orcid, Arthur Middleton, Daniel Olson, Lucas Olson, Craig Reddell, Benjamin S Robb orcid, Gabe Rozman, Hall Sawyer orcid, Cody Schroeder, Brandon Scurlock orcid, Jeff Short, Scott Sprague, Alethea Steingisser, Nicole Tatman
Publication Date 2022-04-07
Beginning Date of Data 2012-12-07
Ending Date of Data 2018-12-13
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DOI https://doi.org/10.5066/P9TKA3L8
Citation Kauffman, M.J., Lowrey, B.H., Beck, J., Berg, J., Bergen, S., Berger, J., Cain, J.W., Dewey, S., Diamond, J., Duvuvuei, O., Fattebert, J., Gagnon, J., Garcia, J., Greenspan, E., Hall, E., Harper, G., Harter, S., Hersey, K., Hnilicka, P., Hurley, M., Knox, L., Lawson, A., Maichak, E., Meacham, J., Merkle, J., Middleton, A., Olson, D., Olson, L., Reddell, C., Robb, B.S., Rozman, G., Sawyer, H., Schroeder, C., Scurlock, B., Short, J., Sprague, S., Steingisser, A., and Tatman, N., 2022, Migration Corridors of Elk in the Jemez Herd in New Mexico: U.S. Geological Survey data release, https://doi.org/10.5066/P9TKA3L8.
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Metadata Date 2022-04-07
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License http://www.usa.gov/publicdomain/label/1.0/
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Harvest Source: ScienceBase
Harvest Date: 2022-04-08T04:39:48.789Z