Dataset DOI: 10.5061/dryad.m37pvmdhq

Description of the data and file structure

Data to fit step selection functions for elk as a function of cattle density, drought, and landscape/habitat covariates as described in Ruprecht J, Forrester T, Brown C, Mengak L, Wisdom M J, Clark D A, Levi T. 2026. Drought and growing season phenology over 35 years modulates species interactions among domestic and wild herbivores. Journal of Animal Ecology. All data were collected in accordance with an animal care and use protocol approved by the Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee (#IACUC 92-F-0004). The data were thinned to retain one of the 20 available locations for each used location. Please contact the authors before reuse or to request the unthinned dataset.

Files and variables

File: elk_ssf_data_dryad.csv

Description: 

Variables

• case_ = indicator whether telemetry fix is a used (1) or available (0) location
• id = unique animal identifier
• x1_ = x coordinate (UTM) at start of step
• y1_ = y coordinate (UTM) at start of step
• x2_ = x coordinate (UTM) at end of step
• y2_ = y coordinate (UTM) at end of step
• t1_ = date-time of start of step (GMT-07hrs)
• t2_ = date-time of end of step (GMT-07hrs)
• dt_ = duration (seconds) of step
• sl_ = step length (m)
• ta_ = turn angle (radians)
• daytime = indicator of whether the telemetry location was taken during daytime hours
• nighttime = indicator of whether telemetry location was taken during nighttime hours
• month = month (integer) of datapoint
• year = year (integer) of datapoint
• id_year = unique identifier of the id-year combination
• step_id = unique identifier of step
• cattle_ud = cattle utilization distribution value at the end point of the elk step
• cattle_density = cattle density value at the end point of the elk step (cattle_ud corrected for cattle abundance)
• aspect = aspect value at the endpoint of the elk step derived from the digital elevation model
• canopy = canopy cover value at the endpoint of the elk step derived from LEMMA's GNN model
• d2r_open = distance to nearest open road at endpoint of elk step
• d2w_perennial = distance to nearest perennial water source at endpoint of elk step
• vrm = vector ruggedness measure value at the endpoint of the elk step
• PVT = potential vegetation type at endpoint of elk step