Elk are the most abundant large mammal found in Yellowstone. European American settlers used the word "elk" to describe the animal, which is the word used in Europe for moose (causing great confusion for European visitors). The Shawnee word "wapiti," which means "white deer" or "white-rumped deer," is another name for elk. The North American elk is considered the same species as the red deer of Europe.
Bull elk are one of the most photographed animals in Yellowstone, due to their huge antlers. Bull elk begin growing their first set of antlers when they are about one year old. Antler growth is triggered in spring by a combination of two factors: a depression of testosterone levels and lengthening daylight. The first result of this change is the casting or shedding of the previous year's "rack." Most bulls drop their antlers in March and April. New growth begins soon after.
Growing antlers are covered with a thick, fuzzy coating of skin commonly referred to as "velvet." Blood flowing in the skin deposits calcium that makes the antler. Usually around early August, further hormonal changes signal the end of antler growth, and the bull begins scraping the velvet off, polishing and sharpening the antlers in the process.
The antler growing period is shortest for yearling bulls (about 90 days) and longest for healthy, mature bulls (about 140 days). Roughly 70 percent of the antler growth takes place in the last half of the period, when the antlers of a mature bull will grow two-thirds of an inch each day. The antlers of a typical, healthy bull are 55–60 inches long, just under six feet wide, and weigh about 30 pounds per pair.
Bulls retain their antlers through the winter. When antlered, bulls usually settle disputes by wrestling with their antlers. When antlerless, they use their front hooves (as cows do), which is more likely to result in injury to one of the combatants. Because bulls spend the winter with other bulls or with gender-mixed herds, retaining antlers means fewer injuries sustained overall. Also, bulls with large antlers that are retained longer are at the top of elk social structure, allowing them preferential access to feeding sites.
Mating season The mating season (rut) generally occurs from early September to mid-October. Elk gather in mixed herds—lots of females and calves, with a few bulls nearby. Bulls bugle to announce their availability and fitness to females and to warn and challenge other bulls. When answered, bulls move toward one another and sometimes engage in battle for access to the cows. They crash their antlers together, push each other intensely, and wrestle for dominance. While loud and extremely strenuous, fights rarely cause serious injury. The weaker bull ultimately gives up and wanders off.
Calves are born in May and June. They are brown with white spots and have little scent, providing them with good camouflage from predators. They can walk within an hour of birth, but they spend much of their first week to ten days bedded down between nursings. Soon thereafter they begin grazing with their mothers, and join a herd of other cows and calves. Up to two-thirds of each year's calves may be killed by predators. Elk calves are food for black and grizzly bears, wolves, coyotes, cougars, and golden eagles. Female elk can live 17–18 years. Rare individuals may live 22 years.
Population
Climate is an important factor affecting the size and distribution of elk herds here. While nearly the entire park provides summer habitat for 10,000–20,000 elk, winter snowfalls force elk and other ungulates to leave most of the high elevation grasslands of the park. Less than 5,000 elk winter in the park. Elk on the northern range Yellowstone's largest elk herd winters along and north of the park's winter boundary. With more moderate temperatures and less snowfall than the park interior, this area can support large numbers of wintering elk. The herd winters in the area of the Lamar and Yellowstone river valleys from Soda Butte to Gardiner, Montana. It also migrates outside of the park into the Gallatin National Forest and onto private lands.
Elk on the northern range Yellowstone's largest elk herd winters along and north of the park's winter boundary. With more moderate temperatures and less snowfall than the park interior, this area can support large numbers of wintering elk. The herd winters in the area of the Lamar and Yellowstone river valleys from Soda Butte to Gardiner, Montana. It also migrates outside of the park into the Gallatin National Forest and onto private lands.
After decades of debate over whether this range was overgrazed by too many elk, public concern has shifted to the herd's small size. The winter count, which was approximately 17,000 when wolf reintroduction began in 1995, fell below 10,000 in 2003. It fluctuated between 6,000 and 7,000 as the wolf population on the park's northern range declined from 94 in 2007 to 38 in 2010. The elk count dropped to 3,915 in early 2013, the lowest since culling ended in the park in the 1960s. The decrease has been attributed to predation by reintroduced wolves and a large bear population, hunter harvest, and droughtrelated effects on pregnancy and survival. The State of Montana has reduced the permits issued for this herd so that hunting of females now has little impact on population size.
There are some indications that elk–wolf interactions are contributing to a release of willows and other woody vegetation from the effects of herbivory on the northern range. Wolves have altered the group sizes, habitat selection, movements, distribution, and vigilance of elk while the proportion of browsed aspen, cottonwood, and willow leaders has decreased in some areas during recent years, and cottonwood and willow heights have increased significantly. Research is underway to determine how climate, hydrology, wolf predation/avoidance, and herbivory interact in their effects on these woody species.
Elk in the interior Only one herd lives both winter and summer inside the park. The Madison–Firehole elk herd (less than 100 animals) has been the focus of a research study since November 1991. Researchers are examining how environmental variability effects ungulate reproduction and survival. Prior to wolf restoration, the population was naturally regulated by severe winter conditions to a degree not found in other, human-hunted elk herds. The elk are also affected by high fluoride and silica levels in the water and plants they eat, which affect enamel formation and wear out teeth quickly—thus shortening their lives. The average life span is 13 years; elk on the northern range live approximately 18 years. Information gained in this study will be useful in comparing unhunted and hunted elk populations.
Elk in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem The Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem is home to approximately 30,000–40,000 elk. For most of the last two decades, the Jackson herd, which currently numbers about 12,000, has been larger than the northern Yellowstone herd. Some ranges and migratory routes overlap, and some interchange occurs among the herds. Summer range in the southern part of Yellowstone National Park is used by part of the Jackson herd as well as by elk from the North Fork Shoshone and northern Yellowstone herds. Because the wildlife responsibilities of the National Park Service, the US Fish and Wildlife Service, the US Forest Service, and state wildlife agencies also coincide, elk management in Greater Yellowstone requires substantial coordination among government agencies with different priorities.
Elk in areas burned by wildfire Researchers also examined elk use of areas burned in the wildfires of 1988. They found that elk ate the bark of burned trees. Fires had altered the chemical composition of lodgepole pine bark, making it more digestible and of higher protein content than live bark. While the burned bark was not the highest quality forage for elk, it is comparable to other lowquality browse species. Researchers speculate that elk selected burned bark because it was readily available above the snow cover in winter.
Disease in Greater Yellowstone
Brucellosis Many elk and bison in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem have been exposed to the bacterium that causes brucellosis. Brucellosis is a contagious bacterial disease that originated in livestock and often causes infected cows to abort their first calves. It is transmitted primarily when susceptible animals directly contact infected birth material. No cure exists for brucellosis in wild animals. For more information about brucellosis, see "Bison."
The prevalence of brucellosis in Yellowstone elk is low; the rate of exposure to brucellosis in 100 adult female elk captured on the park’s northern range during the winters of 2000 to 2005 was 2 percent; it was 3 percent in 130 neonatal elk on the park’s northern range during the summers of 2003–2005; and it was 3 percent in 73 adult female elk captured in the park’s Madison–Firehole drainages during winters of 1996–1998. Elk are commonly observed within 100 yards of bison during late winter and spring when brucellosis-induced abortion or calving occurs in Yellowstone.
Because of their high densities, elk that are fed in winter have sustained high levels of brucellosis; winter feeding on the northern range stopped more than 50 years ago. Elk are fed during the winter at the National Elk Refuge in Jackson, Wyoming, in addition to 22 Wyoming-run feedgrounds. The feedgrounds were created in the 1900s to maintain Wyoming’s elk herds and limit depredation as migratory routes from summer range to lower elevation winter ranges became blocked by settlement in the Jackson area. Transmission of brucellosis from feedground elk, where an average of 30 percent have tested positive for exposure to the bacteria, was the apparent source of infection in Wyoming cattle in 2004.
Chronic wasting disease Elk, deer, and moose in Greater Yellowstone are at moderate risk for exposure to chronic wasting disease (CWD). This fatal infection, transmitted by animal contact or through the environment, has spread to within 130 miles of the park. National Park Service staff and partners will continue surveillance and, if necessary, take action to minimize both transmission of the disease and the effects of intervention on the elk population and other park resources.