Winter weather brings elk down to the lowlands
—Photo by DON BARTLING A cow and her calf, both on alert, look up from foraging in a snow-covered field.
During my travels in Boundary County this past weekend I observed 78 cow and calf elk in one large herd by the Kootenai River. Winter brings crisp, cold temperatures, snow, freshness in the air and elk from the high mountains.
Elk are large mammals that belong to the deer family. They are covered with dark brown or reddish colored coat during the summer and light grey or yellow, dense coat during the winter. The head, neck, legs and belly are darker than the rest of their tan body. Elk are also called wapiti, a Native American word that means “light-colored deer.” Elk are related to deer but are much larger than most of their relatives. A bull elk’s antlers may reach 4 feet above its head, so that the animal can tower 9 feet tall.
If you travel Boundary County looking for elk, the time they are most active is at dusk and dawn. They are strictly herbivores (plant-eaters) and their diet is based on tree sprouts, forbs, grass and bark. An average adult elk consumes about 20 pounds of food per day. Natural enemies of elk are black and grizzly bear, mountain lions, coyotes and wolves.
Bull elk lose their antlers each March, but they begin to grow them back in May in preparation for the late–summer breeding season.
In early summer, elk migrate to high mountain grazing grounds where the cows will give birth. Pregnancy in females lasts 240 to 262 days. Each cow typically has a single calf, which can stand by the time it is 20 minutes old. Young elk are scentless. Consequently, predators have difficulty smelling them. The calves are covered with creamy spots to ensure camouflage in the early days of life when it is most vulnerable. The mother elk rejoins the herd with her calf after three weeks. Young elk stay with their mother until the age of approximately 12 months.
During the late summer breeding season, the bugling of bull elk echoes through the mountains. These powerful animals strip the velvet off their new antlers using them in violent clashes that determine who gets to mate with whom. Males with the bigger antlers, typically older animals, usually win these battles and dominate small herds.
In the winter, wapiti reconvene into larger herds, though males and females typically remain separate. The herds return to lower valley pastures where elk spend the season pawing through snow to browse on grass or settling for shrubs that stand clear of the snow cover.
Discover Boundary County’s wildlife, there is a lot of nature to enjoy.
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