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Migration Routes of Elk in the South Wind River Herd in Wyoming

Published by U.S. Geological Survey | Department of the Interior | Metadata Last Checked: January 27, 2026 | Last Modified: 2020-11-09T00:00:00Z
Migratory movements of elk within the South Wind River herd include short (i.e., 10 miles) to medium (i.e., 40 miles) distance migrations generally from low elevation winter ranges along the foothills to high elevation summer ranges within the Wind River Range. Elk movements along the west side of the Winds trend southwesterly from summer ranges to winter ranges, largely dependent upon winter severity. Some individuals traverse the Winds and winter in Red Canyon. There are a number of challenges for South Wind River elk. These include increasing vehicle collisions on US Highways 287 and 789 from Twin Creek to Beaver Rim and over South Pass and potential future energy development along the western side of the Wind River Range where recent oil and gas leasing has occurred on Bureau of Land Management and State of Wyoming managed lands. These data provide the location of migration routes for Elk (Cervus canadensis) in the South Wind River herd in Wyoming. They were developed from Brownian bridge movement models using 60 migration sequences collected from a sample size of 24 animals comprising GPS locations collected every 2-8 hours.

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