BLUE RIDGE COUNTRY (12/01) - Jennifer Murrow will be monitoring the Great Smoky Mountain National Park elk population for the next five years, working towards her Ph. D from the University of Tennessee. The first 25 elk were released from their pens April 2, 2001. At least four calves were confirmed as newborns, with three or four more calves still on the ground in the park. Since August, the elk have not exceeded a range of six miles, while those of western US range up to 100 miles.
BLUE RIDGE COUNTRY (12/00) – The first 25 elk will be released in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park in January of 2001. This is the first shipment of 75 to be released over the next five years. Each elk will be radio-collared as a part of the $1.5 million project sponsored by Friends of the Great Smoky Mountains, the Smoky Mountains Natural History Association and the Montana-based Rocky Mountain Elk Association. For more information, check out www.nps.gov/grsm/homepage.htm
NATURAL HISTORY (11/00) – (This is an article about fall rutting in the San Juan mountains of Colorado.) By early October, mature bulls have driven away younger competitors, and the cows are determining their positions in the breeding queue. All deer are polygamous, but the nature of their courtship is dependant upon their environment. White-tail deer in the eastern deciduous and northern coniferous forests maintain large home ranges. Females try to roam in a large area to promote more competition among potential mates, thus assuring the best mate. Males try to limit the female range to keep her around him until she is receptive.
For western elk, habitat is more open, thus females must be more concerned with protection of their young, and will congregate in open areas. This makes it possible for males to monopolize several cows in harems. The open habitat requires dominant males to expend much energy repelling combatants, while females are easily lured to other visible males. Bulls will mate as often and with as many as possible to assure genetic progeny. Females, however, only can mate with one, thus, they must be very selective. Bull elk must continually advertise their "manliness" to keep the cow interested, and the most convincing method is by his voice. A deeper, lower voice indicates a larger size, proving ability to obtain food, compete with others, and survive the rigors of winter. Males listen as well as females, thus, minimizing challenges and potential injuries.
The fall rutting season takes an enormous energy toll on males, leaving them vulnerable to early winter stresses. Early winter snows and cold can result in high male mortality, resulting in a strongly skewed sex ratio in spring elk herds.
WASHINGTON POST (NOVEMBER 2000) – A year-long study on the feasibility of reintroducing elk to Virginia has just been completed. It has identified four areas where elk populations could be established. These areas include the southwestern VA, the central Piedmont, west-central VA west of I-81, and portions of Shenandoah National Park and the Shenandoah Valley. Deer would come from the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation; the same group responsible for elk used throughout the eastern states. Ted Turner, for one, financially supports this organization. It has been in existence for 16 years and, working with state game agencies and universities, has acquired or improved 3 million acres of land for elk habitat.
PENNSYLVANIA WILDLIFE (MAY/JUNE 2000) – In November of 1867, the last elk in Pennsylvania was shot. In 1913, 50 elk from Yellowstone Park were stocked in PA, along with 22 from a private reserve in Monroe County, PA. In 1915, 95 elk were brought in from Yellowstone Park and released throughout northwestern and northcentral PA counties. The first elk hunt was conducted in 1923, with 23 bulls taken. However, the next year, only ten were "harvested", and the number dwindled until only one was harvested in 1931. At this time, hunting was suspended. To this date, no seasonal harvest has been approved. By the 1980’s, the herd numbered between 110 and 150. It appeared a few were shot illegally every year, while others fell to farmers who shot them for crop damage.
In the early 1990’s, PA Game Commission (PGC) started a program to buy lands for elk and creating a fencing program, where farmers paid only 25% of fencing costs to keep elk out of their pastures. This didn’t go over well. Then the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation, with help from the Safari Club International and others, offered to pay for the farmers’ share of the program. This went over very well! In 1992, the herd numbers 183. By 1996, over 300 were counted. The 2000 annual elk survey conducted this past January, showed the herd at 566. The PGC believes the herd will reach 735 by the fall of 2001, and nearly 1,300 by 2005. The PGC has started transferring elk from their traditional range around Benezette and St Marys to Sproul State Forest.
This summer, hearings have been conducted to consider the state’s first hunting season. Numerous complaints of elk damage were registered. This article further says,
"Some of those at the hearing suggested fencing the elk in on state-owned preserves where they can be hunted or viewed; others suggested the elk are too tame to make a hunt sporting, but agree something must be done to contain them. Some went so far as to suggest taking a portion of the money raised through the sale of elk licenses and setting it aside each year to pay for losses suffered by farmers experiencing elk-related crop damage. Jerry Barnett, a member of the PA Farm Bureau’s Wildlife Damage Control Committee, said that regardless of how wild or tame PA’s elk are, and regardless of how much or how little people like having them around, they are here to stay. Knowing that, a hunt is the only logical way to control them."
A committee report notes that, even with a "trap and transfer" program in place, there is no real alternative to hunting. This article suggests that a hunt has several advantages including:
-minimize elk damage and nuisance complaints
-provide economic benefits
-provide recreation
-increase knowledge of the herd through mandatory check stations
-reduce the number of habituated elk
-return funds for elk management
-reduce the likelihood elk might destroy habitat and ultimately hurt other wildlife
The first hunt is proposed to be held November 12 – 17, 2001, with a goal of harvesting 17 bulls and 15 cows. If those goals are not met, the season will be extended.
You can follow their efforts on the internet www.pgc.state.pa.us, then click on "wildlife,’ then "Elk in PA’ and "Elk Hunt Advisory Committee Report". Or, go to PENNSYLVANIA ELK HERD, maintained by Indiana University, PA.
BLUE RIDGE COUNTRY (APRIL 2000) – The last elk in North Carolina was killed about 1850. But, due to the thriving market for powdered elk horn ($50 to $90 a pound in 1998, before the Asian market crash), one former cattle rancher has 22 yearling calves, 35 cows, and 40 bull elk. Several other cattlemen may soon buy breeding stock to start their own business. The owner states "Elk ranching’s going to be a coming thing."
PENNSYLVANIA WILDLIFE (MARCH/APRIL 2000) – The PA Game Commission is planning to trap and relocated 15 to 20 elk from Elk County to State Game Lands 321 in West Keating Township, Clinton County, PA. This is down from 40 originally scheduled, due to resident concerns.
PENNSYLVANIA WILDLIFE (JAN/FEB 2000) – PA Game Commission has created an advisory board to develop a plan to establish a limited elk hunt in Pennsylvania.
PERSONAL COMMUNICATIONS (FALL, 1999) - On Route 55, in West Virginia, just east of Wardensville, is the North Mountain Elk Farm. I talked with Mr. Lee, the Asian owner (540) 869-8597 about his operation. He was raising elk for the elk horn market. Apparently, he, and various suppliers throughout the US, send the horns to a central operation (I believe he said Texas), where the horns are ground, shipped and sold to the Asian market. (I’ve also heard that it is the velvet, not necessarily the antlers, that is the crux of the market.)
SMITHSONIAN (12/99) – Elk is a Shawnee name, meaning "pale rump".
Elk originally ranged from Georgia to southern New England before being extirpated a century ago; in South Carolina by 1737, Vermont by 1800, northern New Jersey by 1805, New York by 1847, and Kentucky by 1850. The last of the elk east of the Mississippi River were gone by the late 19th century. However, the remaining herds in western National Parks grew such that by the early 20th century, attempts to reintroduce elk to our eastern forests were initiated. Such efforts generally failed with New Yorks’ several hundred in the Adirondacks from 1901 to 1932 disappearing by 1953, Virginia’s lasting 50 years before vanishing in 1970, and North Carolina’s efforts ending with the last elk being seen in 1935. However, two states did succeed; Michigan’s 1918 releases and Pennsylvania’s 200, stocked from 1913 to 1926. Initially a success, Pennsylvania’s population quickly reached 500 to 600 by the 1920’s. But hunting, habitat loss, and a brainworm parasite reduced the herd to a dozen or so by the 1940’s. The PA Game Commission took an active interest in the 1970’s, and by working with farmers to fence off croplands, and providing quality grazing lands on reclaimed strip mines, the state increased the herd from 183 in 1992 to more than 500 in 1999. This increase in herd size has caused the PA Game Commission (PGC) to expand the elk’s range to the east of the existing habitat. They turned to the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation (RMEF). Many elk being reintroduced into the east are being funded by the RMEF, a private conservation group created in 1984 by four Montana hunters. Over half a million dollars has been spent by the RMEF in habitat acquisition and research in PA alone.
The RMEF has also given a $900,000 grant for a nine-year restoration project to reintroduce elk to Kentucky. Elk will come from Utah, where 3,000 elk reside in a region which should support 1,000 elk. The region in Kentucky where the elk are being relocated are former strip mine areas where "hollow-fill" mining has occurred. (This is the mountain removal mining receiving attention in WV, a technique where mountaintops are scraped off and used as fill in lower valleys.) These grassy meadows make ideal elk habitat. 168 elk were brought to Kentucky from Utah in 1998, of which 98 are still alive a year later; about what biologists had expected. When the nine-year project is completed in 2006, up to 1,800 elk will have been moved to Kentucky across a 14 county area. The 3.6 million acre release area is bounded on the west by Daniel Boone National Forest, making an excellent buffer area between the elk and farmland to the west. Eventually, elk may be released into the Big South Fork, another national recreation area on the Tennessee border.
Elk reintroductions has been initiated in Wisconsin (25 in 1995 to the Chequamegon National Forest) on an experimental basis. Other states are conducting feasibility studies; New York, Virginia and Missouri. Great Smoky Mountains National Park expects to begin stocking elk in 2001.
The RMEF is a very well organized and well funded operation, with an "aim" to introduce elk throughout the country.
NATIONAL WILDLIFE (?) - Elk can be five feet tall at the shoulders, with a similar wide rack, weighing 750 lbs (cows weigh about 450 lbs). Only the moose is larger in the Cervidae family. AKA wapiti. Maybe 10 million at the time of European immigration, now numbering 750,000. Responding to short day-stimulated hormones, bulls metabolism rises, nick swells, becoming restless and bugling. Bugling probably also helps the cow come into estrus (lasting two days). Bulls will wallow in mud and their own urine getting "in the mood". Unlike most deer members, elk remain in herds during the rut. The bull may have a harem of 40 cows. (In one celebrated Oregon case in the 60's, a bull intimidated a bull cow and took over the domestic cows.) During the rut, males will chase anything that vaguely sounds like a competing bull; thus many states prohibit hunters to bugle during this time. The bull watches his harem during the rutting period to the point of not eating and losing weight. By mid-October, the rut ends quickly, allowing the bull to stock up on lost weight before winter. The cows leave in herds, while the bulls go off to live separately.