Winter Ranges of Elk in the San Francisco Peaks Herd in Arizona

The San Francisco Peaks elk (Cervus canadensis) herd comprises a migratory portion of the larger herd units in Arizona’s Game Management Units (GMU) 7 and 9. GMU 7 and 9 had a combined population estimate of 5,200 in 2019. These data were generated from two elk research projects by the Arizona Game & Fish Department: one to assess elk-vehicle collisions on Interstate 40 (Gagnon et al. 2012) and the other to evaluate aerial survey methods for elk abundance (Bristow et al. 2019). While many of the elk reside in the same general areas year-round, the migratory portion of this herd migrates an average of 42 miles between summer and winter range. Summer range, primarily in GMU 7, consists of high elevation open meadows and ponderosa pine forests around the San Francisco Peaks and Kendrick Park. Winter range contains a mix of ponderosa pine, pinyon-juniper, and sagebrush habitats along the Coconino Rim and Upper Basin. Obstacles to migration for this herd are predominantly roads including State Route 64 and U.S. Highway 180.
These data provide the location of winter ranges for elk from the San Francisco Peaks Herd in Arizona. They were developed using 6 winter range sequences collected from a sample size of 6 adult elk comprising GPS locations collected every 3-7 hours.