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 November 5, 2026, 08:04 (UTC)
Created April 1, 2025, 19:06 (UTC)
Identifier 10.3334/ORNLDAAC/2188
Modified 2026-11-02T22:15:59Z
Theme {"Earth Science"}
accessLevel public
bureauCode {026:00}
catalog_conformsTo https://project-open-data.cio.gov/v1.1/schema
harvest_object_id 38c2c577-683a-4e1f-bef9-e02e6c47a618
harvest_source_id b99e41c6-fe79-4c19-bbc3-9b6c8111bfac
harvest_source_title Science Discovery Engine
license https://www.usa.gov/government-works
programCode {026:000}
publisher ORNL_DAAC
resource-type Dataset
source_datajson_identifier true
source_hash 819ae6d95987dc650d73c4d2b537fca5b0a1850990ea5cb873ffe57c9cd8cfc6
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