Go Hunt Species Distribution Filters

[J.flanagan]

I'm working through scouting a few area's and am trying to determine some good locations for a mild weather CO 2nd season elk and a couple COLD weather CO 2nd season hunts(higher and lower elevation basically). If snow, and lots of it, comes earlier in the year, Id like to make sure I have something planned at a slightly lower elevation. So, using gohunt, I see filters like, "winter range," "winter concentration area," and "sever winter range." However, I was looking at a couple clustered mountains that hold elk in the summer according to the "summer range" filter, but when I switch to the winter filter's there's nothing shown in the area.

I would assume if there are elk at higher elevations, when winter rolls in, a lot of them would just dip into the lower 6 - 8000 altitude area. Is that an assumption that can be made? The winter filters show nothing in the area. Should I just ignore the "range" filters on gohunt? Where do they source that data and what exactly does "winter range" mean? Elk are only located in those area? Or, the majority of the elk move to those areas? If anyone could enlighten me to the technical data behind those filters, I would apricate it.

Also, if anyone would care to shoot me a message to discuss the animal habits that would be great.

 

[Fitzwho]

They get that species distribution filter directly from Colorado Parks and Wildlife. You are likely looking at areas with more migratory herds that may move out of the unit entirely when weather hits. Turn on the migration corridors and that should tell you where they leave head to.