Winter Ranges of Elk in the North of Interstate 40 Herd in Arizona

The North of Interstate 40 (I-40) elk (Cervus canadensis) herd makes an annual migration throughout some of Arizona’s high elevation landscapes west of Flagstaff. The bulk of the herd resides in Arizona’s Game Management Unit (GMU) 7W during the summer and during the winter many migrate to GMU 10. The GMU 7W population had an estimate of 4,300 individuals in 2019, while the GMU 10 population had an estimate of 3,200. Like many elk in Arizona, only a portion of the herd is migratory. Summer range contains ponderosa pine forests and open prairies near Government Prairie and Sitgreaves Mountain. In the winter, the elk transition to gradually lower elevations and habitats dominated by pinyon-juniper woodlands. I-40 and State Route 64 are primary threats to this migration corridor. Successful elk crossings of I-40 are rare, and research has shown that there are more than 65 elk-vehicle collisions/year along this stretch (Gagnon et al. 2012a,b). These data provide the location of winter ranges for elk from the North of Interstate 40 Herd in Arizona. They were developed using 28 sequences collected from a sample size of 18 adult elk comprising GPS locations collected every 2 hours.