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Jerod A Merkle

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Using data from 288 adult and yearling female elk that were captured on 22 Wyoming winter supplemental elk feedgrounds and monitored with GPS collars, we fit Step Selection Functions (SSFs) during the spring abortion season and then implemented a master equation approach to translate SSFs into predictions of daily elk distribution for 5 plausible winter weather scenarios (from a heavy snow, to an extreme winter drought year). We then predicted abortion events by combining elk distributions with empirical estimates of daily abortion rates, spatially varying elk seroprevalence, and elk population counts. Here we provide the predicted abortion events on a daily basis at a 500m resolution for the 5 different weather...
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288 adult and yearling female elk were captured on 22 Wyoming winter supplemental elk feedgrounds and monitored with GPS collars during the brucellosis risk period (February – July) from 2007 to 2015. There were 4 to 64 individual elk per feedground and each elk was monitored for 1 to 2 years. Here we provide the unique identifier for each individual elk, the GPS location of the elk, the date/time stamp of the GPS location, and the feedground the elk was captured on in Wyoming.
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Elk movement and predicted number of brucellosis-induced abortion events in the southern Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem (1993-2015)
Using data from 288 adult and yearling female elk that were captured on 22 winter supplemental elk feedgrounds in Wyoming and monitored with GPS collars from 2007 - 2015, we fit Step Selection Functions (SSFs) during the spring abortion season and then implemented a master equation approach to translate SSFs into predictions of daily elk distribution for five plausible winter weather scenarios (from a heavy snow, to an extreme winter drought year). We predicted elk abortion events by combining elk distributions with empirical estimates of daily abortion rates, spatially varying elk seroprevalence, and elk population counts. Here we provide 1) the adult and yearling female elk GPS collar data used to fit SSFs, 2)...
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Using data from 288 adult and yearling female elk that were captured on 22 Wyoming winter supplemental elk feedgrounds and monitored with GPS collars, we fit Step Selection Functions (SSFs) during the spring abortion season and then implemented a master equation approach to translate SSFs into predictions of daily elk distribution for 5 plausible winter weather scenarios (from a heavy snow, to an extreme winter drought year). Here we provide the predictions of elk space use on a daily basis at a 500m resolution for the 5 different weather scenarios: 1) low snowfall year (2010), 2) average snowfall year (2012), 3) high snowfall year (2014), 4) hypothetical early snowmelt climate change scenario where spring green...
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We calculated mean adult and yearling female elk abundance for each Wyoming winter supplemental feedground subpopulation for data collected from 2009 to 2015. In addition, the average seroprevalence of brucellosis in elk attending feedgrounds was based on blood samples from adult and yearling female elk from 1993 to 2015. The sample size of disease tests and the number of years over which they were collected on each feedground are also listed. Serological profiles were categorized using the 2003 U.S. Department of Agriculture brucellosis eradication uniform methods and rules for cervids. These serological tests indicate whether or not an individual has been exposed, but not whether they are currently infected.
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