Discover the remarkable seasonal migration of elk across Jackson, Wyoming, tracked by USGS between 2006 and 2018. These maps reveal fall and spring migration and habitat use along rivers, lakes, and highways. Routes are compared by travel duration, with a 3D fly-through animation bringing the longest journey to life. One migration route lasted 128 days, tracing a path that closely parallels a major highway, not because elk follow roads, but because roads were built along their ancestral corridors. These animals likely carry migratory memory passed down through generations, navigating a landscape now reshaped by human development.
🍂🌸 Fall & Spring Migration Routes: Seasonal migration patterns and overlapping routes
📅 Routes by Length in Days: Visualizing variation in migration duration (14 days to 128 days)
🦌🦌 Highlighting the 128-day Longest Recorded Route
🎥 Fly-Through Animation of Longest Route
📊 Data Source: Kauffman, M.J., Copeland, H., Cole, E., Cuzzocreo, M., Dewey, S., Fattebert, J., Gagnon, J., Gelzer, E., Graves, T.A., Hersey, K., Kaiser, R., Meacham, J., Merkle, J.A., Middleton, A., Nunez, T., Oates, B., Olson, D., Olson, L., Sawyer, H., Schroeder, C., Sprague, S., Steingisser, A., and Thonhoff, M., 2020, Migration Routes of Moose in the Jackson Herd in Wyoming: U.S. Geological Survey data release, https://doi.org/10.5066/P9O2YM6I