These data represent the Kaibab Plateau bison herd's seasonal ranges on the North Rim of Grand Canyon National Park and the Kaibab National Forest. The Kaibab Plateau bison make seasonal movements from summer to winter habitat and range widely during transitional seasons.
Bison were captured annually between 2019 and 2022 with a corral trap using low-stress handling techniques (Hibbard 2021) in accordance with an approved USGS animal use protocol (FORT IACUC 2018-14 and NPS Concurrence Institute of Animal Care and Use Committee USGS, IMR_GRCA_Schoenecker_Bison_2018.A2). Bison were immobilized using a hydraulic squeeze chute and outfitted with Iridium global positioning system (GPS) tracking collars (Telonics Inc, model: TGW-4477 Iridium, Mesa, AZ, USA), targeting older males and female matriarchs. Bison were released from the capture facility immediately following collaring. Collars were programmed to release from bison following two years of wear so that the animals were not burdened with the weight of the collar beyond the lifespan of the battery. Locations collected every two hours from collared male and female bison during the focal period of September 15, 2019 – April 30, 2022 were used to complete a resource selection function analysis. Data from the first five days following each animal’s capture were omitted to avoid bias of animal movements from capture events.
Bison seasonal designations are based on their movements. An animation created in the ‘moveVis’ package in R (R Core Team, Schwalb-Willmann et al. 2020) was used to visually estimate the date range for each biological season. The range polygons were created using location data from GPS-collared female and male bison (n = 43) and kernel density techniques (R Core Team, Calenge 2021). Note that polygons represent a 95% utilization distribution area. Last updated on 5/3/2022.