Skip to main content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Official websites use .gov
A .gov website belongs to an official government organization in the United States.

Secure .gov websites use HTTPS
A lock ( ) or https:// means you’ve safely connected to the .gov website. Share sensitive information only on official, secure websites.

Skip to content

Try the next-generation Data Catalog at catalog-beta.data.gov and help shape it with your feedback.

Predicted connectivity pathways between grizzly bear ecosystems in Western Montana: spatial data

Metadata Updated: January 21, 2026

Grizzly bear (Ursus arctos) connectivity pathways delineate predicted movement routes for grizzly bears between federally designated recovery zones in and near western Montana. These raster data are the official data release for Sells et al. (2023), "Predicted connectivity pathways between grizzly bear ecosystems in Western Montana." In summary, we built on recent work by Sells et al. (2022, 2023) to simulate movements using integrated step selection functions (iSSFs) developed from GPS-collared grizzly bears (F = 46, M = 19) in the Northern Continental Divide Ecosystem (NCDE). We applied the iSSFs in a >300,000 km2 area including the NCDE, Cabinet–Yaak (CYE), Bitterroot (BE), and Greater Yellowstone (GYE) Ecosystems to simulate habitat use between ecosystems. We employed two simulation methods. First, we simulated directed movements (randomized shortest paths with 3 levels of exploration) between start and end nodes across populations. Second, we simulated undirected movements from start nodes in the NCDE, CYE, or GYE (no predetermined end nodes). We summarized and binned results as classes 1(lowest relative predicted use) -10 (highest relative predicted use) and evaluated predictions using 127 outlier grizzly bear locations. Connectivity pathways were primarily associated with mountainous areas and secondarily with river and stream courses in open valleys. Values at outlier locations indicated good model fit and mean iSSF classes at outlier locations (≥7.4) and Spearman rank correlations (≥0.87) were highest for undirected simulations and directed simulations with the highest level of exploration. Our predictive maps can facilitate on-the-ground application of this research for prioritizing habitat conservation, human-bear conflict mitigation, and transportation planning.

Access & Use Information

Public: This dataset is intended for public access and use. License: No license information was provided. If this work was prepared by an officer or employee of the United States government as part of that person's official duties it is considered a U.S. Government Work.

Downloads & Resources

Dates

Metadata Created Date January 12, 2026
Metadata Updated Date January 21, 2026

Metadata Source

Harvested from DOI USGS DCAT-US

Additional Metadata

Resource Type Dataset
Metadata Created Date January 12, 2026
Metadata Updated Date January 21, 2026
Publisher U.S. Geological Survey
Maintainer
Identifier http://datainventory.doi.gov/id/dataset/USGS_6491b29bd34ef77fcb004434
Data Last Modified 2024-07-11T00:00:00Z
Category geospatial
Public Access Level public
Bureau Code 010:12
Metadata Context https://project-open-data.cio.gov/v1.1/schema/catalog.jsonld
Metadata Catalog ID https://ddi.doi.gov/usgs-data.json
Schema Version https://project-open-data.cio.gov/v1.1/schema
Catalog Describedby https://project-open-data.cio.gov/v1.1/schema/catalog.json
Datagov Dedupe Retained 20260121130127
Harvest Object Id a306b92a-f84b-499b-ad73-c7c94b532254
Harvest Source Id 2b80d118-ab3a-48ba-bd93-996bbacefac2
Harvest Source Title DOI USGS DCAT-US
Metadata Type geospatial
Old Spatial {"type": "Polygon", "coordinates": -117.4219, 43.0689, -117.4219, 49.0000, -107.3145, 49.0000, -107.3145, 43.0689, -117.4219, 43.0689}
Source Datajson Identifier True
Source Hash 1700871e2aa90434558ccaa1b99db7e52907a449efbe494cdb366960f9366c27
Source Schema Version 1.1
Spatial {"type": "Polygon", "coordinates": -117.4219, 43.0689, -117.4219, 49.0000, -107.3145, 49.0000, -107.3145, 43.0689, -117.4219, 43.0689}

Didn't find what you're looking for? Suggest a dataset here.