Idaho and Nevada Elk Inside Desert Migration Routes

The Inside Desert elk herd comprises part of an Idaho–Nevada metapopulation that primarily uses winter ranges in Idaho and summer ranges in Nevada (fig. 37). Inside Desert elk migrate from their winter range near the confluence of the Bruneau River and Clover Creek in Idaho, following the western edge of the Inside Desert along the Bruneau and Jarbidge Rivers to their summer range in the Jarbidge Mountains of Nevada. The migration route for part of the Inside Desert elk herd is divided and generally follows Clover Creek to a summer range near Elk Mountain in Nevada. Elevations range from 4,390 ft (1,338 m) at Lookout Butte in Idaho, to 8,815 ft (2,687 m) at Elk Mountain, and to 9,502 ft (2,896 m) in the Jarbidge Mountains. Winter range comprises a patchy mosaic of intact native shrubland communities consisting of sagebrush, native bunchgrasses like Leymus cinereus (basin wildrye) and Festuca idahoensis (Idaho fescue), and past wildfire scars with extensive establishment of nonnative vegetation like cheatgrass and Brassica spp. (mustard). The summer range consists of high-elevation mountain brush communities including antelope bitterbrush, western serviceberry, snowbush, communities of quaking aspen, mountain-mahogany, and fir. Much of the high-elevation summer range is intact and considered some of the most productive elk habitat in Nevada. Apart from hunter harvest, adult survival is high for Inside Desert elk, and calf recruitment is usually higher than thresholds required for stable population growth (K. Huebner, Nevada Department of Wildlife, written commun., 2023). These mapping layers show the location of the migration routes for elk (Cervus canadensis) in the Inside Desert population in Idaho and Nevada. They were developed from 51 migration sequences collected from a sample size of 23 animals comprising GPS locations collected every ~ 8-12.5 hours.

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