The management of Roosevelt elk (Cervus elaphus rooseveltii) and their habitat is an important topic for a diverse group of land managers and local stakeholders in northern California. Roosevelt elk are an important big game species for hunting, are a primary prey species for wolves (which are reestablishing in northern California), and compete for forage with local livestock. Despite serving these pivotal and often controversial natural resource roles, very little is known about Roosevelt elk movements and habitat selection on public and private land in California’s Klamath Mountains. I used data from nine GPS-collared elk in the Klamath Mountains to determine elk home ranges and habitat selection in this study area. I augmented GPS data with field observations of elk, elk tracks, and elk sign to determine behavior and diet in selected areas. To determine home ranges I used a Brownian bridge movement model framework to map individual elk utilization distributions from the GPS collar data. I tested elk habitat selection for areas that experienced recent high burn severity wildfire and low canopy cover (<25%) by comparing the proportion of used versus available habitat units with these attributes.
Results/Conclusions
Home range size varied between 2,980 and 5,126 hectares per individual (n = 9). All elk in this study showed seasonal migratory behavior with summer range being 872 meters higher than winter range on average. An initial analysis of habitat selection shows that elk select for 1) areas that experienced high vegetation burn severity from recent large wildfires and 2) areas with less than twenty-five percent canopy cover. Field observations of elk diet and behavior show that fire adapted shrub species, such as snowbrush ceanothus (Ceanothus velutinus) and sadler oak (Quercus sadleriana), comprise a large fraction of elk diet on summer range. Elk bedding sites occurred in a wide variety of habitat types, but were typically in areas with high structural heterogeneity of vegetation and close to standing water. These results and observations suggest that prescribed burns are a promising management technique for maintaining and restoring quality elk habitat.