Snow Properties and Wildlife Tracks in Washington and Alaska

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 temperature, and vegetation type. To best capture snow hardness, surface penetrability and hand-hardness were measured throughout the snowpack. The data are provided in comma-separated values (CSV) format.

Data and Resources

Additional Info

Field Value
Maintainer Earthdata Forum
Last Updated September 15, 2026, 04:01 (UTC)
Created April 1, 2025, 19:06 (UTC)
accessLevel public
bureauCode {026:00}
catalog_conformsTo https://project-open-data.cio.gov/v1.1/schema
harvest_object_id dc422d1f-7c2a-4a50-91e4-3b7d46b6f1f8
harvest_source_id b99e41c6-fe79-4c19-bbc3-9b6c8111bfac
harvest_source_title Science Discovery Engine
identifier 10.3334/ORNLDAAC/2188
license https://www.usa.gov/government-works
modified 2026-09-07T22:16:03Z
programCode {026:000}
publisher ORNL_DAAC
resource-type Dataset
source_datajson_identifier true
source_hash 6afe26a969e0e1e5b72baa53c2a807c5230635b714c336418a67b8a0be36fd36
source_schema_version 1.1
spatial ["CARTESIAN", [{"WestBoundingCoordinate": -150.008, "NorthBoundingCoordinate": 63.9688, "EastBoundingCoordinate": -117.172, "SouthBoundingCoordinate": 48.0523}]]
temporal 2021-01-09/2023-03-13
theme {"Earth Science"}