Conservation Programs

Elk Habitat Use

Elk Habitat Use In Colorado’s Gunnison Basin

SCI Foundation jumped at the opportunity to team up with the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation and the Colorado Parks and Wildlife Department to track elk habitat usage and movement patterns – information that is helping guide elk management decisions for the state wildlife agency.  GPS collar data was turned into ‘Heat Maps’ to provide important occupancy patterns for elk in the Gunnison Basin that help drive management decisions for the Colorado Parks and Wildlife Department. Long distance movements recorded from the GPS collars have shown how elk move across federal jurisdictional and game management unit boundaries on a seasonal basis. 
 
Species involved: Elk
 

Project Partners: Colorado Parks and Wildlife, Colorado Department of Natural Resources and Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation

SCIF Investment: $50,000

SCIF Involvement: 2017-2019

Project Outcomes

The Gunnison Basin is one of Colorado’s prime elk hunting and viewing areas and has been the subject of long-term studies of elk ecology. In fact, the basin is an elk hotspot. Approximately 15,000 elk roam the area located in southwestern Colorado, making it the perfect place for tracking elk movement and habitat use. Colorado Parks and Wildlife, the U.S. Forest Service, Bureau of Land Management, Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation and SCI Foundation have collaborated on the creation of habitat utilization maps. These maps chart elk movements and habitat usage throughout the entire Gunnison Basin and the areas outside of the Gunnison Basin in an effort to plan management strategies, evaluate elk habitat and identify migration corridors. Wildlife officials use this information to help manage the state’s elk herds.

See elk migration patterns and concentration areas – https://databasin.org/maps/6766386c7ace4f8ebc7e0e85e4e7342a/active/

 

  • Markhor in Pakistan

  • Snow Leopards in Nepal

  • Tajikistan Argali Populations

  • Pakistan Snow Leopard Project