Counts of winter ticks on live-captured moose in western US

Data include counts of winter ticks (ticks.hind) along transects of variable length (transect.cm.hind) on the rumps of live-captured moose in 5 western US states (state).  Other attribute data include the moose ID, capture date, local moose density (density.category), migratory status (migratory), presence of other ungulates on shared winter range (shared.winter.range).  A suite of climate metrics are also included for each record specific to that capture location and year, labelled according to the biological season during which they were summarized (q=questing [fall]; d=dropoff [spring]; s=summer) as described in the manuscript.  Metrics include the proprortionate snow cover (SnowProp), amount of snow water equivalent during midpoint and endpoint of season (SWEmid, SWEend), mean temperature (TempMean), number of days below 0 and -20 degrees C (TempDays0, TempDaysm20), average relative humidity daily minimum and maximum (RHmin, RHmax), cumulative precipitation (Precip), and landcover c..., Ticks were counted along transects through the hair of moose captured during winter.  Analyses were focused specifically on ticks counted on the rump area.  Transects varied in length so the length of transects was used as an offset term in models.  Please see associated manuscript for methodological details regarding tick load data collection and associated attribute data., , # Winter tick loads on moose in western US

## Description of the data and file structure

Data include:

**ticks.hind**: counts of individual winter ticks, Dermacentor albipictus, found along transects through the hair on the rumps of 750 live-captured moose, Alces alces, during winter (December 13%, January 52%, February 20%, March 16%) in 5 western US states (state).

**transect.cm.hind**: length of the transects along which hair was parted and searches for ticks were conducted

**moose ID**: individual moose that were captured

**capture date**: date of the capture events

**density.category**: We used expert opinion to characterize individual moose as being located within areas of low (< 0.21), medium (between 0.21 and 0.41), or high (> 0.41) adult females per km2, following quantitative delineation of moose densities with focus on adult females by Schmidt et al. (2007). We imagined overlaying a 5 x 5 km neighborhood surrounding each winter capture location and the biologi...