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Winter Ranges of Elk in the Pueblo of Santa Ana Herd in New Mexico

Published by U.S. Geological Survey | Department of the Interior | Metadata Last Checked: January 27, 2026 | Last Modified: 2022-04-07T00:00:00Z
The elk (Cervus canadensis) of the Pueblo of Santa Ana herd are primarily non-migratory and located northeast of U.S. Route 550 and south of the Jemez Mountains. The winter range is dominated by black grama (Bouteloua eriopoda), galleta (Pleuraphis jamesii), mesa dropseed (Sporobolus flexuosus), and fourwing saltbush (Atriplex canescens), with pinyon-juniper woodlands and ponderosa pine forests dominating the higher elevation slopes of the Jemez Mountains. Two individuals exhibited migratory movements from the lower elevation winter range on the Pueblo of Santa Ana to the higher-elevation slopes of the Jemez Mountains via Bear Springs Canyon, east of the town of Ponderosa. Challenges to elk movement include the winter range being bounded by U.S. Interstate 25 to the southeast and US 550 to the southwest, with elk only crossing US 550 west of the Jemez Canyon Reservoir. These data provide the location of winter ranges for elk from the Pueblo of Santa Ana Herd in New Mexico. They were developed from Brownian Bridge movement models collected from a sample size of 9 adult elk comprising GPS locations collected every 4 hours.

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