The
order Artiodactyla contains all the even-toed ungulates. These are the mammals
that basically led to man’s transition from hunter to farmer, including goats, camels, pigs, oxen, cattle, buffalo and
sheep. Other mammals in this order
include hippopotamuses, llamas, giraffes, deer, pronghorn, and
antelopes. These mammals first
appeared about 54 million years ago. The canines are usually reduced or lost (as in the
white-tailed deer), and the upper incisors are greatly reduced or absent (as
in the case of deer and elk).
This
order and the order perissodactyla (horses, zebras, rhinos, and tapirs) make up
a group called ungulates. Unlike the even-toed artiodactylas, the perissodactyla
are odd-toed. Although this group has no taxonomic status, it refers to a
broad group of herbivorous mammals that are more or less specialized for
cursorial (running) locomotion. This refinement of running abilities is a function
of their evolution on the expanding grasslands of the Miocene Period.
Speed became the primary means of avoiding predation, and seasonal movements to
seek water or appropriate food probably became an important part of the ungulate
mode of life. Many ungulates have become large, in part to minimize predator
pressure, but also due to the large digestive systems required to process the
voluminous quantities of low-nutritious vegetative material necessary for its
energy needs.
The
Old World seems to have been the center of evolution of the Artiodactyla
order, whereas the perissodactyls developed mainly in North America.
Three
suborders exist in the artiodactyls, based on the tooth and horn structure.
Suiformes (pigs and hippopotamuses) have low-crowned teeth with low,
rounded cusps and relatively large canines, adapted for an omnivorous diet.
They do not have horns or antlers.
They form a unique group that has evolved with short legs and a squat
body. Some species within this suborder
have two chambered stomachs (pigs and peccaries), while others have three
chambered stomachs (hippopotamuses). None of these stomachs are
ruminating.
The next two suborders have
evolved long legs, made for running, a long set of broad molars and a
specialized stomach for handling a purely vegetarian diet. These are the ruminants. Their
stomach utilizes microorganisms that ferment hard-to-digest molecules,
converting them into useable forms. It
is this partially decomposed food that is regurgitated as “cud” to be
further ground by the ruminant’s molars before further processing.
They swallow the food rapidly, with little chewing, and then may retire to
some secluded spot to digest it more thoroughly. Tylopoda (llamas and camels) have
a three chambered stomach, with teeth cusps elongated
longitudinally into crescents. Ruminantia
(deer, elk, caribou, moose, giraffe, pronghorn antelope, bison, sheep, goat,
and others) have a four chambered stomach, with teeth similar to the Tylopoda, but generally sport horns or
antlers. Other adaptations of
these vegetarians are flexible necks and lips.
Finally, as a concession for running, all ruminants run on their third
and fourth toes, sheathed in thick, hard keratin, with the lateral toes
reduced.
Feeding
in sunny, often open exposed areas, they have developed excellent senses of
sight and smell to detect predators. They
are often gregarious (safety in numbers) and give birth to precocial young.
The exception is the white-tailed deer (and, to a lesser extent, the
moose) of the woodlands, who give birth to altricial young, who are hidden in
the brush until able to travel with the mother.
For
additional information on ungulates, go to MAMMOLOGY.
Worldwide,
the Artiodactyla order is represented by 221 species in 86 genera in ten
families (Nowak's Walker's Mammals of the World).
North America supports
26 species in 19 genera, representing five families (Jones et al. 1997 Checklist of North American Mammals).
This includes fourteen exotic species that are known to support reproducing
populations in the wild.
In
the Suidae family, the
European wild hog (Sus scrofa)
is known to exist sporadically throughout the Southern Appalachians.
This is the source of the Arkansas razorback and the domestic hog, or
pig.
It is not a native; there are no native pigs in North America.
Instead, North America is home to three species of peccaries,
restricted to the New World; found in southern Texas and to the south. These
feral pigs now occur from Texas to Florida and the Carolina, in West Virginia
and New Hampshire, throughout California, on eight of the major Hawaiian
islands, and on Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands. It is estimated that
these free-ranging pigs number 500,000 - 2,000,000.
Within this Appalachian region, the wild hog is most notably present in
the Great Smoky Mountains National Park.
Any hiker in the Smokies has seen the extensive rooting that decimates
herbaceous and other groundcover vegetation.
These feral hogs are descended from an original population of thirteen
young boars released in April of 1912 in a game preserve on Hooper Bald.
About 1920, an estimated 100 boars escaped and began it’s spread,
breeding freely and hybridizing with feral domestic pigs along their way. Kellogg (1939) stated: “So
far as known to Arthur Stupka, park naturalist, no wild boars have come into
the Great Smoky Mountains National Park.
He believes that the Little Tennessee River, which separates the park
from the Cherokee National Forest, may constitute a real barrier against the
northward spread of this introduced species.” Unfortunately, this was not the case. It is believed that they entered the southwest quadrant of
the park in the late 1940’s, in the vicinity of Calderwood.
Since then, the boars have moved eastward at a rate of about 1.65 miles
per year. Their presence on
Gregory Bald was first noted in 1958, with an estimated population of 500
concentrated in the region between Cades Cove and Fontana Lake in 1959.
Trapping began that same year. By
1980, the estimated population in the park was 1500, with a density of 265
boar per square mile in northern hardwood forests in the western half of the
park. At that time, a moratorium was
placed on shooting boars in the North Carolina side of the Park.
Instead, local volunteers were organized to trap and remove as many hogs as
possible. Unexplainably, those captured boars were transported and
released in national forest in North Carolina. From 1959 through 1977 (18
years), 1,143 boars were “removed” from the park.
From 1977 though 1993 (16 years), a total of 6,316 animals were
removed. However, recent annual harvest
in the Park has substantially declined. With the same amount of labor
spent, the number of boars caught has fallen from 1200 in 1986, to only 203 in
2000. These catch per manhour expended ratios indicate that the
population in the Park in 2001 is somewhere between 400 and 600.
The
boars in the Smokies breed year-round with peaks in late fall/early
winter and late spring/early summer, with litters averaging between 3 and 4
per litter (one litter per year). Seasonal
movements between higher and lower elevations occur (March/April and
August/September). Studies have found 58% of their spring/summer diet
consisting of spring-beauty corms (approximately 70% of their spring diet is
subterranean in origin), an average of 1.75 salamanders per stomach (mainly
red-cheeked), and hard mast comprising 60 to 85% of late summer diets.
The
North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission has an excellent webpage on The
Wild Boar in North Carolina. (Go to the "species" link at
the top row. Then, "publications", and then you'll see it listed
under the NC Wildlife & Wildlife Management Publications.)
The
only member of this order found in the Appalachian study area, which has
survived in the wild, is the white-tailed deer. The deer were nearly extirpated in the 1920’s but have
rebounded since that time, while being augmented by re-introductions in
various locations.
The
last moose (Alces alces) were extirpated in Pennsylvania probably by
the late 18th century. However, the lack of historical records of moose
in Pennsylvania suggests that the species was always poorly represented in
this state, preferring the boreal spruce forests and aspen and willow thickets
of New England and Canada.
Another
ruminant, the elk, or wapiti, extirpated from the eastern US, has been re-established in
the Appalachian study area in Pennsylvania and in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park (2001)
in North Carolina and has been reintroduction in Tennessee, Kentucky, and
Arkansas. (Actually, the native eastern elk subspecies has become
extinct. The introduced elk is a
western subspecies.)
Due
to the controversy and extent of recent introduction efforts in many eastern
states, the elk is included below as a separate listing.
In
the Bovidae family, the
American bison (Bos bison) has long been extirpated from the Appalachian study area.
Also known as the plains buffalo, this member of the Bovidae family (bison,
muskoxen, antelope, goats, sheep, and cattle - differing from cervids by the
presence of permanent unbranched horns on males and most females) was last seen east of the
Mississippi in the early 1830’s.
Buffalo apparently were more abundant in Virginia than any other
Atlantic state. In fact, they
were still abundant in the Charlottesville area at the time of Thomas
Jefferson’s birth (1743). Buffalo
were particularly common in the Mount Rogers area of Virginia. Even
today, in the Elk Garden area of Mount Rogers, the remains of a once huge
buffalo wallow can be found being used by cattle that now graze the land.
Buffalo,
who can interbreed with domestic cattle, were themselves domesticated and bred
in captivity in Virginia, with both bison-calves and mixed breeds commonly
found among western settlements of Virginia in the late 1700’s.
(A little more about the domestication of buffalo can be read in the
discussion of John James Audubon’s Quadrupeds
of North America.) Rockfish Gap (at the southern end of the
Shenandoah National Park) was a major buffalo pass, leading across the
Shenandoah Valley and through Great North Mountain.
In the Smokies and surrounding area, bison
ranged throughout much of the mountains of North Carolina and Tennessee.
They traveled from North Carolina to the Great Valley of East Tennessee
(the southern extension of the Shenandoah Valley) through the Cumberland and Great Smoky mountains along the Holston and French
Broad Rivers. Large southern
populations were found in the Cumberland Valley bluegrass region of the
Nashville, TN area.
The
last bison in North Carolina was recorded about 1760. The last bison killed in Pennsylvania was in Union County, in
1801. The last bison in Virginia was said to be killed by Nathan
Boone, a son of Daniel Boone, in 1797 along the New River. The last bison
killed in West Virginia was in 1815, 12 miles below Charleston, along the
Great Kanawha River. Stephenson says the
last bison in West Virginia was killed near Valley Head, Randolph County in
1825. The last
bison in Kentucky are dated to 1800, and in Tennessee, between 1800 and 1810.
In
1819, a male bison was sent to Paris to be a part of the world's first
national zoo, under the Supervision of Frédéric Cuvier, younger brother of
the museum's famous professor of comparative anatomy, George Cuvier.
After a disastrous first birth, where both the calf and cow died, Frédéric
ultimately decided that bison were unsuitable for farming because "every time
one turned one's back on the museum's bison, it charged."
The
bison of this region is the same plains bison of the western US (Bos
bison bison). It is believed
to be a separate subspecies from the woods buffalo, Bos
bison athabascae, generally limited to western Canada, north of
approximately 55°
N. latitude. (The subspecies
designation comes from the Athabasca River, which flows through northern
Alberta; home of the 17,000 square-mile Wood Buffalo National Park.) Recent mitochondrial DNA comparisons suggest that subspecific
distinction may not be justified (i.e., they're both the same species with no
subspecies existing).
The
woods bison is generally larger, less shaggy, and has a more pronounced hump
than the plains bison.
From
an original pool of 60-70 million bison, 30 million bison existed in 1870, with
only 1,000 existing by 1889. There
are probably about 250,000 bison in North America today. Most are in captivity, but at least three herds are free
roaming. One free ranging herd is called the Wild Bunch, after Butch Cassidy’s
gang, located in the Henry Mountains of southern Utah. A second herd is in Alaska, and the third herd is actually
the wood buffalo in the above mentioned Wood Buffalo National Park.
(According to a 1994 National Geographic article, 4,000 existed in
Yellowstone National Park. At the Flying D Ranch near Bozeman, MT, Ted Turner had about
5,700, with another 2,100 at a ranch in New Mexico.)
Additional information
on the bison can be found at the US
FWS website.
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Family Cervidae -Cervids
Members
of the Cervid family (deer, caribou, moose, and elk) are best characterized by
the presence of antlers, found generally only on males (caribou females also
have antlers). Cervids are
ruminants; possessing four stomach chambers, thus enabling them to chew their
cud. Upper incisors are lacking.
The canine teeth are absent in the white-tailed deer, and are poorly
developed in the elk. They tend
to be gregarious and all are herbivores; some specializing as grazers (grass
eaters) and others as browsers (eating leaves and twigs).
The
woodland species of moose and deer are much less gregarious than the caribou
and elk, adapted to the more open habitat.
Only one genus (Roe deer) are known to have delayed implantation.
Antlers
are appendages of the skull, composed of a solid bony core and supported on
permanent skin-covered pedicels. In our temperate zones the antlers
begin to grow early in the summer, during which time they are well-supplied
with blood. They are soft and tender and are covered with a thin skin, which
bears short fine hairs and has the appearance of velvet. By late summer
the antlers have attained their maximum size. The blood then gradually
recedes, and the thin skin with the velvety hair dries, loosens, and is rubbed
off. By the time the velvet is shed all circulation of blood has ceased; thus,
when shedding takes place there is no bleeding and probably not even
discomfort for the animal. After the velvet is rubbed off, the antlers
serve as sexual ornaments and weapons. The antlers are shed each year
from January to April, following the mating season, taking about two to three
weeks. In a single deer both antlers are usually shed within several
hours or days of each other. First year antlers are unbranched straight
spikes. Throughout the deer's life, the size of the antlers is a
function of the animal's diet.
It is generally accepted that North American cervids arrived on this
continent from Asia at various times from the middle Miocene to the late
Pleistocene, between 1 million and 18 million years ago.
The
moose, extirpated in Pennsylvania in the late 18th century (and
only known from Highland County, VA glacial age deposits), is the largest
cervid, weighing up to 1300 pounds.
There
are 41 species of deer worldwide, representing 17 genera (Nowak's Walker's
Mammals of the World). There are nine species representing six genera found in
the wild in North America (Jones et al. 1997 Checklist of North American
Mammals). However, only 5 species in 4 genera are
native to North America (elk, black-tailed and white-tailed deer, moose and
caribou).
Two cervids are found in the Appalachian study area; the re-introduced
elk, and the white-tailed deer.
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WAPITI or ELK (Cervus elaphus)
ARTICLES
Appalachian
Region Distribution: Originally, throughout, although totally
extirpated from eastern US by the late 1800’s. Now re-established in
several north-central counties in Pennsylvania and in the Great Smoky
Mountains National Park (see Remarks below).
Continental Range:
Throughout, with the exception of it’s southernmost reaches. This
species includes what is known as the red deer of Europe and northeastern
Asia.
Abundance: Limited to areas of reintroductions in
Pennsylvania and the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. (see Remarks below.)
Population Density: In Michigan, densities vary up
to 4 to 5 elk per square mile.
Size
and Molt: 5 feet at the shoulders; head and body length of 8 feet for
the male, (7.5 feet for the female); Bulls
weigh 580 – 1000 lbs; cows, 500 – 650 lbs.
The wapiti is the second largest cervid in the world, second
only to the moose.
They are heaviest in late summer.
Two annual molts.
Mammae:
Four mammae.
Habitat: Forested mountain edges and open
meadows. The wapiti shares its habitat with the white-tailed deer,
although it is more of a wilderness animal.
Active
Period: Crepuscular, or nocturnal, in
eating habits.
Diet:
Grazers
(feeding on woody and herbaceous plants) in
spring and summer, and browsers (feeding on woody stems) in winter.
Some mushrooms will be eaten. Being
a ruminant (thus, having a four-chambered stomach), wapiti regurgitate their
food and chew it as cud before being reingested.
Home
Range: In one Scottish study, females had home ranges of about 150 acres
in summer and 100 acres in winter, whereas males had corresponding ranges of
100 acres and 62 acres. Eastern elk apparently do not migrate, while western
populations often do, depending on habitat.
In such cases, migration is elevational, with much smaller winter
ranges (thus the reason for smaller cougar winter ranges). About a
fourth of the Jackson Hole herd remains in the same area and even most of the
northern Yellowstone mountainous herds remains in the same high elevation
range.
Social Structure: A highly gregarious species,
known to maintain herds up to 200 in open western habitat, with smaller groups in
wooded areas. Within each herd, a rank
hierarchy is maintained. During
winter,
males and females are in separate herds in their own discrete areas, the
females and immature calves in large herds, the males in smaller herds.
As spring approaches, the large winter herds break up, sorting into
smaller bands, which follow the snowline up to higher elevations. Following parturition in
early June (in PA), the mother and newborn live alone for several weeks.
By early July, the cows and their young, along with immature calves of both sexes, begin
to congregate. By mid-July, herds of as many as 400 have formed and are
led by a dominant female, the matriarch.
Bulls are living separately, or in small groups, numbering up to about six, on
the outskirts of the female herds. These separate herds break
up during rutting (female herds restrict their ranges in September, while
males leave their ranges and join the females in October) when males and females come together and the
bulls compete to form harems of 15 to 20 cows (up to 60).
Around the third week of August, evidence of the rut begins, with bulls
shedding the velvet from their fully-formed antlers. By Labor Day, bulls
begin to bugle, and by mid-September, full rut is in motion in
Pennsylvania. After mating is completed, by about mid-October, the sexes separate.
Often, numerous herds of both sexes will concentrate in large aggregations
of up to 1,000 animals in regions of limited winter range.
Life Cycle: After a
mid September or early October breeding, one calf
(twinning is rare) is produced in late May or early June (in PA) after an eight and a half month
gestation period (249 – 262 days). Like white-tailed deer, the altricial
calf
is born with a spotted coat and left alone in hiding for the first two
or three weeks, only approaching five or six times a day for nursing.
Weaning is complete by late summer (4-7 months).
Bulls
are polygynous; mating with as many females as possible.
However, in a dense forested habitat, the bull will normally search out
females and stay with each until she is in estrus, while in a more open
habitat, the bull more often will advertise his presence by bugling and
attract females to him. Rutting
begins in autumn, with males practicing the ritual characteristic of bugling. The bulls can round up as many as 60 cows (a Michigan study
showed harems of one to 21). Regardless
of the harem, seldom does a male actually father more than four per
season. Bulls will not normally be able to hold a harem until at least
four years of age. It is believed that it is really the cow that picks the bull, and not
vice versa. Cows are seasonally polyestrous, the cycle being about 18
days. It is believed that there may be as many as four estrous periods
during the rut. They are in heat for only about 18 hours.
A healthy bull can lose as much as 100 pounds during the rut, due to
lack of sleep, food, and frenzied mating for several days.
Rutting involves roars (bugling), thrashing and spraying of urine, with
frequent fighting and injuries. In fact, about 5% of males in a
population may be expected to die annually from fighting. Rutting ends quickly after the cows are mated, with the harems breaking
up shortly later. Young females usually
adopt a home range overlapping that of their mother, while males will
generally leave the area at 2-3 years of age to join a stag group. Cows reach sexual maturity at three years of age; bulls usually acquire
harems and mate at four to five years of age, although they are sexually
mature at two years of age. Life span of 14
to 20 years.
Tracks:
Similar, but larger (3 ½ to 4 ½ “ in length) and rounder than
white-tailed deer. Stride of 30 - 60"; up to 14' when running.
Scat:
Scats are fairly distinctive, but variable, being larger than deer
pellets (1.5” long). Summer
diets produce flat, elongated or circular chips similar to cattle, but smaller
in diameter (5 to 6”), and occasionally longer.
Winter scat is the common ungulate elongated “sawdust “ pellet
form.
Remarks:
The
wapiti was originally described as Cervus
canadensis, but is currently believed to be the same species as the
Eurasian red deer, C, elaphus. In Europe, the common name “elk” applies to the what we
call “moose”; thus, the reason for the preferred common name “wapiti”,
meaning “white rump” in Algonquian language.
Wapiti
are the most vocal of eastern US ungulates.
The wapiti has a higher pitched voice than woodland cervids like moose.
This is because deep, low-frequency sounds travel better through
vegetation than higher pitched sounds and, conversely, higher pitched sounds
travel best across unobstructed open space.
Bugling is an accurate sign of male strength, and is a major attraction
used by females in picking a mate. (As
mentioned above, it is believed that the cow selects the harem to which it
will belong, and not the bull that selects the harem.
The cow has ample opportunity to leave a harem if she so desires.)
Antlers
are also a quality of males that females observe in their selection.
Antlers can weigh up to thirty pounds and have a spread of five feet.
Reproductive hormones are excreted in the bull’s urine, and it, too,
is a reliable signal of reproductive condition.
Therefore, bulls will spray themselves with their own urine and wallow
in it to impress the females.
All
this bugling, growing large antlers and, well, ok, so wallowing in urine doesn’t
use much energy, but the first two items do require the bull to utilize a lot
of energy in the late summer period. This
means a lot of foraging in the summer must occur, and this implies a large
foraging range in search of browse.
After
the rut, the stressed bulls are weakened and more vulnerable to predation.
At this point, the antlers are a liability, both in terms of weight and
visibility, and will fall off quicker for populations living in forested
habitats than those living in more open habitat, who may need them for defense
and competition among other elk for more limited food sources.
The last recorded in Virginia
were killed in Clarke County in October, 1854, and January, 1855. In Pennsylvania, the last recorded was in Elk County, in
1867. The last elk in West Virginia were
found near the headwaters of the Tygart and Greenbrier Rivers in 1875, but
were gone by 1890. Also, every county in Tennessee had elk.
The last one shot was in 1849.
Wapiti
have been introduced to north-central Pennsylvania, dating back to 1913.
The stocking program, which totaled 177 elk, ended in 1936.
145 of these elk came from Yellowstone National Park.
A hunting season ensued from 1923 to 1932, when low stock ended the
harvest. By 1965, the population
may have been 35 individuals (or less).
As of 1982, an estimated population of 125 existed within an 80 square
mile area within Cameron, Elk, and McKean counties.
By 1997, the resident wapiti population exceeded 300 for the first
time. In the winter of 1998, 33
wapiti were transferred east to the Kettle Creek Valley area within the Sproul
State Forest (Clinton County). It
is expected by the year 2000, the total state population will reach 500,
inhabiting an area of 800 square miles. (The
best viewing is the Elk Viewing Area on the top of the mountain beyond the
village of Benezette (presumably, this is Winslow Hill), or anywhere along the local roadways near that town. To find the Elk Viewing Area, take the road across from the
Benezette Store, on Route 555, north a short distance to where the pavement
forks at the Benezette Hotel. Keep
to the right and follow the road to the top of the hill. The Elk Viewing Area is on the left side of the road.
Recently, a 217 acre tract located in Elk State Forest, near Benezette,
has been acquired for the protection of the wapiti, and is a popular area for
viewing.) The best time of the
year is September. (A
10/28/01 Washington Post article comments you can stay at the Towne House Inn
in St. Marys (800 851-9180), or a Comfort Inn and Best Western, both on the
south side of St Marys. The Bavarian Inn is recommended for German food
and rooms (877 351-3624). Also, there is a mandatory stop at Straub's
brewery (814 834-2875), where free beer is served 9-5 weekdays and 9-1 on
Saturday!)
Wapiti were
introduced into Virginia in 1917. Between
140 and 150 were taken from Yellowstone National Park and released in Bland,
Botetourt, Cumberland, Giles, Montgomery, Princess Anne, Pulaski, Roanoke,
Russell, Warren and Washington counties, with the first limited hunting
allowed in late December of 1920. By 1922, an estimated population of 500 elk existed in
Virginia. An additional 56 wapiti
were imported from Yellowstone in 1935, released in the Sugar Hollow section
of Giles County and Botetourt County near Natural Bridge.
By 1940, the Giles-Bland herd was estimated to contain approximately
100 animals and the Botetourt-Bedford herd approximately 25 animals.
At this time, there were no white-tailed deer in these areas, those
being extirpated by the late 1800’s. A
total of 85 white-tailed deer were released in the 1950-1956 period that
flourished. However, these deer
were heavily infested with roundworms (brainworm), a nematode parasite, which
proved lethal to the wapiti. The
last wapiti was seen in the Botetourt-Bedford range in 1970, and in the
Giles-Bland range in 1974.
After
much study and public hearings, Virginia decided in 2000 not to proceed with
re-introduction studies of elk for the state. This was based on
agricultural concerns expressed by many farmers as well as the acknowledgement
of existing, albeit, unrequested, entry into SW Virginia of reintroduced elk
from Kentucky.
An experimental release of elk
in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park began with the introduction of 25
in the Cataloochee area in 2001. 25
more are planned for release in both 2002 and 2003, for a total of 75.
This will be a five year experimental release program. Their
impact on the vegetation of the Park and the rare plants of the
unique high-elevation balds will be assessed as part of this experiment.
This highly publicized effort, like the red wolf re-introduction effort, is
being driven by the Park's stated mission of returning native species to the
area. (Apparently, the Smokies were near the southern limits of the elk’s
former range, and never heavily populated this area.
None-the-less, elk were common inhabitants of the North Carolina
northern Piedmont and all of the mountain counties.)
Tennessee
However,
the most ambitious elk reintroduction effort attempted in the east goes to
Kentucky. The
Kentucky Department of Fish and Wildlife Resources (KDFWR) has begun the
release of wapiti into the Robinson Forest (University of Kentucky property)
in eastern Kentucky. Since
1997, more than 750 elk have been released in this area. An estimated
200 wapiti will be released each year until 2007 in this area and land owned
by Cyprus-Amax Coal Company, managed by the KDFWR, for a grand total of 1,800
elk. Elk from this release in southeastern Kentucky, have already
migrated into Virginia, and, in part, has caused the Commonwealth of Virginia
to shelf any plans to reintroduce elk to Virginia at this time.
The reintroduction of elk into
eastern US states is becoming a major attraction to state hunting programs.
Funding for much of the state studies to consider reintroducing elk is
supported, both financially and politically, by the Rocky Mountain Elk
Foundation, a private organization. Additionally, most of the elk are being supplied
through the Rocky Mountain
Elk Foundation. While
hunters, State game commissions, and the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation are
active supporters of such reintroduction efforts, some question the net
ecological benefits of introducing these large herbivores to our eastern
woodlands. Acknowledging the
current pressure on the plant community presented by the deer population, the
addition of new, and larger grazers is viewed by some to only amplify this problem.
With limited natural predation, population control can only be had
through human “harvesting”, which is not a viable option in the National Parks, and
other areas where hunting is not permitted.
Additionally, residents in Pennsylvania are already seeing damage to
their crops by the elk population and are receiving state compensation.
Not surprisingly, the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation is providing funds
to the states for this compensation program.
More information about the
introduction efforts and the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation can be viewed by
going to ROCKY MOUNTAIN ELK.
Studies
as of 1995, suggest there are some 400,00 elk
that presently roam the western mountain and plains areas, and 782,500 in the
US and Canada.
About 100,000 are killed each year (as of 1982).
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WHITETAIL
DEER
(Odocoileus virginianus) (hollow
tooth; of Virginia)
ARTICLES
Appalachian
Region Distribution: Throughout.
Continental Range: Most all of North America, with the exception of
the SW US, reaching down to northern South America.)
Two subspecies are recognized in
the study area.
Abundance: Often too common.
Population Density: 13-65 (or
more)/ square mile. Wilson
reports an average between 51 and 77 per square mile, dependant on forest
quality. A Texas density of 130/square mile is referenced in Nowak.
Size and Molt: Height 3 to 3 ½
feet, 6 foot length, averaging 100-250
pounds. Males are slightly larger than females. The largest deer are in
the northern region (a mature deer on good range can attain a weight of over
400 pounds), and the smallest are the Florida Key deer (weighing a mere 50
pounds). Actually, equally small deer
are found in Central America and coastal South America. Two molts.
Fawns molt in late summer or early fall, at about three to four months
of age.
Mammae: Two pair.
Habitat: Everywhere, especially
forest-field margins and suburban areas.
Active Period: Crepuscular,
year-round. They tend to increase
activity before storms and restrict activity during bad weather.
They usually bed down during the day, often in the woods, moving into
open areas at dusk to begin feeding. Feeding
often continues throughout the night, with a short siesta not uncommon.
Bedding areas are cool, shady areas in summers, sunny areas in cool
weather, and more protected areas in bad weather. Bedding areas are usually not the same spot day after day,
but, in winter, small herds will repeatedly use winter yards.
Diet: Strictly herbivorous.
They have a tremendous adaptability in the diversity of foods they eat.
Deer are mainly grazers in the spring and summer (eating herbaceous plants -
including sensitive fern and bracken fern), but in winter become a browser, eating twigs, buds and fruit.
In spring, green succulent leaves and stems of both woody and herbaceous
species were the dominant food items. In
summer, materials from succulent green plants continue to dominate, with
mushrooms also added. In the fall, acorns were the dominant food item
along with mushrooms, grapes, apples, sumac, and blueberry. In
winter, acorns, grasses, mushrooms, grapes, and sumac were common food
items. Even rhododendron leaves have been found to be a dominant food
item in the more southerly Appalachian Mountains in winter. Deer have an uncanny ability to select the most nutritious
foods available. Agriculturists
tell of observing deer select green bean seedlings that were fertilized over
unfertilized ones. Its
four-chambered stomach allows for quick foraging in open fields and later
regurgitation for better chewing. This
enables the deer (like all ruminants) to eat fast in the open; ready to bolt
from predators, and later, "chew it's cud" in the safety of the
forest. By late winter, bark of
the slippery elm is eaten as a last-resort survival food source.
(Deer utilize microorganisms in the stomachs to help digest its food.
Interestingly, while the deer’s diet changes from herbaceous plants
in summer to buds and twigs in winter, so, the microorganisms in the gut
change species abundance. This explains why a deer in winter can die with a stomach
full of grasses or hay.) Mushrooms
are major food source, after green leaves and buds of woody plants and
herbaceous plants. Woody plants
and grasses hold much less nutrient value after the last frosts, thus reducing
their value as a major food source for deer.
However, site fidelity overrules food supplies.
Many deer die in winter with their stomachs more or less full of food
having little nutritive value, rather than move to areas of less shelter, but
more sustaining foods. Attempts
to drive deer from their chosen winter sites with depleted food supply to
other sites with abundant food supplies usually fail.
Shedd mentions that deer can put on fat in the fall to help the deer
survive the winter season. The
last fat vestiges are found in the marrow of the bones.
Thus, to determine if a deer died from malnutrition, all a biologist
has to do is break open a bone and check the marrow. Marrow from healthy deer is white and fatty, almost like
suet. A moderately malnutrient
deer’s marrow is somewhat less
solid with a pinkish tinge, while a deer that was in the last stages of
malnutrition has marrow that is thin and red.
Home Range: Highly variable. A 1985 study in the
Shenandoah National Park found, for deer along the Skyline Drive, females
averaged 1.7 square miles and males 7.2 square miles, and for deer in
backcountry areas, females had an average home range of 3.4 square miles and
males a range of 6.1 square miles. Other
statistics found a home range for males may be 1 to 1 ½ miles while females
only may range in a ½ to 3/4 mile area. Nowak says most ranges fall within the ranges of 0.1 - 0.5 square
miles for females and 0.4 - 1.4 square miles for males. W/H says male range varies from 40 acres to 330
acres (~1/2 square mile),
dependent on habitat quality. Winter
range is much larger, approaching up to 1285 acres.
Scent glands on the legs near the hooves are used to mark home
territories. Deer occupy
the same home range year after year, but are not territorial. They will, however, defend their bedding sites.
Social Structure: Social,
however, not to the degree (or the large herds) shared by the elk and caribou.
There are two basic social groupings among deer.
Family, or matriarchal groups
consist of a doe and her offspring, which remain together for most of the
year. Most of the year, does, her
young, and last year’s young form groups. In spring, the doe will drive away
the young to bear her young. In fall, the last year’s young doe rejoin the
parent doe, but the young bucks join other bucks or remain alone.
The other group is the buck, or
fraternal group, consisting of several adult and juvenile bucks.
Males can also remain alone. Older bucks may form groups of their own.
Normally, the buck groups will form in the winter after mating, and
will disband after the velvet is lost; 4 to 6 weeks prior to the fall rutting.
At this time, sparring will establish the new dominance hierarchies
prior to the actual breeding. Occasionally,
mixed feeding groups of both males and females will occur.
In the autumn rut, bucks can either remain together, except when
pursuing a doe in heat, or separate for the duration of the rutting season.
Bucks are polygynous; forming a harem of up to ten does, although, with
group members constantly moving in and out of herds, the concept of a harem is
really a misnomer. (In fact, Nowak
states that a male does not attempt to gather a group of females or to defend
a territory, but rather, follows a single doe until mating (or driven away by
contenders). A dominance
hierarchy exists, both in the male and female groups.
Dominance hierarchies are maintained through complex, stereotyped
behavior and threat displays. Such displays include stares, head bobbing, kicking, chasing,
and various vocal sounds. Winter
herds may number up to 150 individuals, centering around areas of food
abundance called “yards”. These
yards, better called “deer wintering areas”, are not cleared areas, but
rather areas with numerous overlapping paths, sloping south or west, with
considerable vegetation, especially coniferous vegetation.
In such circumstances, leadership is matriarchal (different from
dominance, which is always the largest male).
Even though it appears to be one large group of deer, they are actually
a concentration of groups of either bucks or does and their offspring.
(The Shenandoah National Park study found winter group size ranging
from one to 28, with a mean of 3.4 and late summer group sizes ranging from 1
to 10, with a mean of 2.0.) Herding
allows pathways to remain open and to enable more individual protection from
predators. As the fawning season approaches, the wintering groups
disperse, with the pregnant does seeking secluded places for birthing.
Life Cycle: One litter per year
with two per litter for mature adults (10-15% bear triplets; four are rare, but recorded). Single
fawns will be produced by first litters, old does, and in poor seasons. Does
are in heat for 24 hours, and, if not impregnated, will not be receptive for
another lunar month (28 days) (seasonally polyestrous from October to
January). The main breeding is in November (some reach
estrus in October, with non-mated females achieving estrus again in November
and a possible final third time in December).
In our Appalachian study area, the peak period of heat is the second
and third week of each of the three months. Gestation period is 200 days. Most
young are born in late May and early June in this Appalachian region. Being
altricial, the young hide in the tall grass or bushes motionless for the first
three to four weeks while the mother feeds. The mother will have little contact with the fawns for the first
four weeks,
except for nursing, which occurs 3 or 4 times a day.
Twins will hide in separate locations.
During this time, the fawns have little or no scent. After a month,
they follow the mother and start eating solid foods. By about September, the
fawns are weaned (three to four months of age - Wilson says 8 to 10 weeks,
Nowak says completely weaned at four months) and
lose their spots (four to five months of age). They will stay with the does
(who form winter herds) over the first winter before males disperse in the spring,
with some female fawns staying with the mother for two years.
Dispersal is on the order of 6 to 120 miles. Some young does can breed in the first fall, often late in the season,
and will usually bear only one fawn. As
many as 60 – 70% of females of this age class do breed according to some
studies. Such successful
reproduction is directly related to nutritional conditions.
A mean of 1.3 young per female was found for 130 first fall birthings. Males, and most of the spring females, don’t breed
until the second fall. Most deer are killed at two or three years of age.
Females (and those lucky males not shot) can live to about 10 to 15 years in
the wild.
Nest: Deer make no permanent dens or nests, moving from site to site
on a daily basis. Bedding sites are simply concealed sites, forming three-foot
diameter depressions in the vegetation.
Tracks: Two hooves; about 2 ¼ to 2
¾” long. In mud or deep snow,
dew claws can also be seen. Straddle of
4-6". Stride of 1' when walking, up to 6' when running. Can
leap up to 30' (so NAS says). Favored
“buck rubs”, are made with antlers in fall on trees about an inch in diameter and six feet
high. They can be made rubbing off
velvet, marking territory, or by venting hormone-induced frustration, waiting
for a doe to go into estrus. Bucks also make “buck scrapes”
to establish their territory. Scrapes
are made by pawing the ground and thrashing low bushes.
Scat: Scat is commonly 1"
long; 3/8" diameter; cylindrically shaped, with a flat end and a tapered
end, in groups of 20 to 30.
Remarks: As noted above, the
species name means "hollow tooth". Here is another case of zoological
names being misleading. Linaeus was given a tooth that was, in fact,
hollow. However, this was from an old deer with decaying teeth.
Normally, the teeth are not hollow.
White-tailed deer evolved
in North America approximately 4 million years ago. Their ancestoral Asian ungulate stock evolved more like 60 million
years ago, shortly after those dastardly dinosaurs were deemed dispensable.
There
are two species in the genus Odocoileus, the white-tailed, and the mule, or
black-tailed deer. However, keep in mind the tail of the white-tailed is
dark and the black-tailed is white. Actually, the tail of the
white-tailed is brown above and white laterally and below, while the
black-tailed is white or black above and tipped with black, and is a bit
smaller in size. Also, the antlers of the white-tailed has one main beam
with minor branches, while the antlers of the black-tailed branches into two
nearly equal parts.
Deer are
the most popular big-game mammal in eastern US.
Bucks become quite aggressive when in rut. While young deer make good
pets, a newly mature buck has often attacked its owners due to the increase in
testosterone, responsible for antler growth and maturation. Antler
growth is directly related to genetics and nutrition, with nutrition playing
the greatest role in the size of antlers. Antler growth is
triggered by a change in photoperiod, or day length. As day length increases,
the pituitary gland in a buck's brain produces a hormone which
stimulates the pedicels to begin growing antlers. Concurrently, the
pituitary triggers the testicles to begin producing testosterone in small
amounts. Antlers
grow from March and continues through late August, supported by a vascular, soft
skin, supplying nutrients necessary for growth, called "velvet".
By late September, the hormones change; the velvet shuts down it’s growing process,
and the male sloughs off the dead skin, producing the common scrapings found
on bushes and young trees in the bucks’ range. By
late December to February, a pituitary hormone called androgen, which has
maintained the point of connection between the antler and the pedicel, now
decreases in levels, causing a portion of the base of the antler to be reabsorbed,
causing an abscission layer (like leaf bases in the fall), resulting in the
antler falling off, usually one at a time.
In another six to eight weeks, the new buds start the cycle over again.
While antlers are growing ('in velvet'), they are
susceptible to injury and subsequent malformation. This is why a buck can
be found with one normal antler and one deformed. Interestingly, injuries
to the large leg bones may cause abnormal development in the opposite side
antler.
Antlers, replaced annually (as opposed to permanent horns),
are first produced at 1 1/2 years of age, and are the largest at
the peak of the breeding age (usually 5 1/2 - 7 1/2), not the oldest age. In the
eastern US, all points on both antlers are counted, while in the western US,
only a single antler is counted, so that a 10 point buck in VA is a 5 point
buck in CO. Females with
excess testosterone may produce small antlers (one study states one out of
4,000 does; Chapman and Feldhamer reports 1 in 1,000). Antler size
increases with age, but cannot be used to age a deer, due to habitat quality
and calcium intake variations. It
is not unusual to encounter yearling and two year old bucks without antlers
due to poor nutrition. Similarly, yearlings have been found with small
eight-point racks in areas of high quality habitat. Normally, 1
1/2 year old bucks have forked antlers, or, less often, spikes. Spikes
would be more likely in yearlings bred in December, rather than the normal
November rut. For
eastern US deer populations, a rack with eight points is most common. Racks with 11 or more points is found in one buck per 20 to
70. One buck per 300/400 will
have 13 points or more, and one in about 1,000 to 1,300 will have 15 or more
points. Only one in about 4,500
to 5,000 will have 17 or more points.
Deer
deal with winter by putting on body fat in the fall, reducing their metabolic
rate, producing a heavy winter
coat, and moving to “deer yards”.
Their winter coat hairs are tubular, stiff and brittle. For this reason,
the pelts float and have been used for life preservers.
Contrary
to popular opinion, fawns are not scentless.
Research biologists have used dogs to locate fawns by scent.
Their scent is much less pronounced than an adult, but does exist.
It
is not clear why deer raise their white flag tail as they run away.
A warning to other deer, a distraction to the predator to protect the
young, a “follow me” sign to the young, or a startle effect to confuse the
predator are all proposed explanations. The
explanation given the most weight is a “I know you’re there, so you’ve
lost your advantage, and you might as well give up”.
(Perhaps a liberal use of anthropomorphism, but you get the idea.)
Partially
white (piebald) deer are not uncommon. Albinos
are more uncommon, with several being reported at Fort Pickett, VA. Melanism
is extremely rare, but has been observed.
The
Key deer of Florida is a subspecies of the white-tailed deer (O.
virginianus clavium), averaging 50 pounds. As of 1945, only 26
individuals were known to exist. Full legal protection has allowed this
number to swell to an estimated 350-400 in the early 1970's. However,
continued loss of habitat, killing by automobiles, and other mortality has
caused an drop to about 250 animals in 1999, with the trend suggesting the
likelihood of extinction within the next century.
Hybridization
between mule deer and white-tailed deer occurs in the wild as well as in
captivity, where most of the offspring are sterile.
While
white-tailed deer had to be reintroduced in the Shenandoah National Park in
the 30’s (the last deer were chased down by packs of wild dogs), the Smokies
maintained a scarce population that has repopulated the park.
West
Virginia never totally lost their deer population, but only scattered herds
could be located in the remote high mountain areas by the early 1900's.
Reintroductions starting in 1933 and continued until 1957.
Legal
hunting accounts for 2 million deer harvested in the US, with another 500,000
deer killed each year in collisions with cars.
The
following presents the total number of white-tailed deer in Canada and the US
:
Precolonial 23 to 40,000,000
1908
300 - 500,000
1948
6,000,000
1978
15,000,000
2000
25 to 27,000,000
In
certain areas, like the Great Lakes region, where logging has created
favorable habitat, there are more deer now then in pre-Colombian days.
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