Snow Properties and Wildlife Tracks in Washington and Alaska ... : Arctic-Boreal Vulnerability Experiment (ABoVE) ...

• Main Authors: Sullender, B.K., Cunningham, C.X., Lundquist, J.D., Prugh, L.R.
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: ORNL Distributed Active Archive Center 2023
• Subjects: CRYOSPHERE, SNOW/ICE, SNOW DENSITY,; BIOLOGICAL CLASSIFICATION, ANIMALS/VERTEBRATES, MAMMALS,; CRYOSPHERE, SNOW/ICE, ICE DEPTH/THICKNESS,; FIELD SURVEYS, PENETROMETERS; animal track depth; animal prey; snow depth; animal predators; wild animals; Arctic; caribou; Moose; Alaska
• Online Access: https://dx.doi.org/10.3334/ornldaac/2188; https://daac.ornl.gov/cgi-bin/dsviewer.pl?ds_id=2188

This dataset contains three field seasons of snow-wildlife observations conducted at 707 sites from January 2021 to March 2023 in Washington and Alaska, spanning a broad range of snow conditions. Relatively fresh tracks (usually <24 h) of common large mammal predators (bobcats, coyotes, cougars, and wolves) and their ungulate prey (caribou, Dall sheep, moose, mule deer, and white-tailed deer) were investigated to determine how snow affects predator-prey interactions. The track sink depth and dimensions (width and length) of three consecutive footprints were measured from one individual. Age class was recorded for moose based either on visual confirmation of an individual creating snow tracks or based on track dimensions. The ability to differentiate age classes for smaller ungulates was more uncertain, so age classes for deer, caribou, or sheep were not specified. Animal gait was identified using a simple classification scheme. Data also include animal species, snow density, hardness, total ice, surface ...