Tracking elk hunters with the Global Positioning System
By: L. Jack Lyon, Milo G. Burcham.
Contributors: Burcham, Milo G.; Rocky Mountain Research Station--Ogden.
Series: Research paper RMRS -- RP-3.
Publisher: U.S. Dept. of Agriculture, Forest Service, Rocky Mountain Research Station
Published: 1998
Place of publication: Ogden, UT
Language: eng
Subjects: Hunters -- Montana -- Garnet Mountains; Elk hunting -- Montana -- Garnet Mountains; Big game hunting -- Montana -- Garnet Mountains; Wildlife management -- Montana -- Garnet Mountains; Global Positioning System
Description: "We examined elk-hunter behavior and movement patterns within an area that has no motorized access. We used dlobal Positioning System (GPS) units to record hunter locations at 15 second intervals during 99 hunting expeditions in 1993,1994, and 1995. Subsequent analysis within a Geographic Information System (GIs) enabled us to determine that hunters averaged 4.7 hours per hunt while moving at a speed of 40 m per minute for a distance of 10.7 km. Sixty percent of all hunting took place on slopes less steep than the study area average, and westerly aspects were favored. Only one-half of all hunters traveled more than 2.5 km from their starting point, and only 12.5 percent traveled more than 4.5 km. The average distance from the nearest road while hunting was only 267 m, and hunters on foot spent 26 percent of their hunting time on roads. Hunters who spent the most time on roads also recorded the greatest distances from their starting point. Forests were selected over sagebrush by elk hunters, but hunters avoided lodgepole pine and chose more open forest types with mature trees."--Research summary.
Notes: Cover title.

"February 1998."

Shipping list no.: 98-0568-M.

Includes bibliographical references (p. [6]).