Elk Migration Lines - West Goose Lake - 1999-2002, 2018-2020 [ds2900]

The project leads for the collection of this data were Erin Zulliger and Richard Shinn. The winter range of the West Goose Lake Rocky Mountain elk (Cervus canadensis nelsoni) sub-herd is located north of Alturas and west of Highway 395 within the Devil''s Garden Ranger District of the Modoc National Forest. This area is characterized by juniper (Juniperus occidentalis) woodlands, and sagebrush flats with some stands of lodgepole (Pinus contorta) and ponderosa pine (Pinus ponderosa) throughout flat, rocky terrain. From this area, a portion of the herd migrates approximately 50 miles north into Oregon''s Fremont National Forest, habitat that primarily consists of lodgepole and ponderosa pine forests. Minimal barriers exist along this migration route since the corridor primarily occurs on land managed by the US Forest Service. Additionally, although the core migration route does cross Highway 140, little to no impacts are known to exist from this crossing. Elk (12 adult females, 1 adult male, and 3 juvenile males) were captured from 2018 to February 2020 and equipped with Lotek and Vectronic satellite GPS collars. Additional GPS data was collected from elk (2 females and 1 male) in 1999-2002 and included in the analysis to supplement the small sample size of the 2018-2020 dataset. GPS locations were fixed at 4-hour intervals in the 2018-2020 dataset and 6 to 8-hour intervals in the 1999-2002 dataset. Migration lines as symbolized connect GPS data points per elk per seasonal migration. GPS points were extracted only during migrations using net-squared displacement graphs. Five migration sequences from 3 elk, with an average migration time of 6.8 days and an average migration distance of 16.14 km, were used from the 1999-2002 dataset. All three of these elk were used to supplement the eastern members of this herd, which travel shorter distances between summer and winter range than western individuals in the sample. Twenty migration sequences from 9 elk, with an average migration time of 11.2 days and an average migration distance of 57.75 km, were used from the 2018-2020 dataset.