They use mechanical equipment to feed the elk roughly 35 tons of alfalfa pellets each day
In the summer, there can be as many as 20,000 elk from seven different herds in Yellowstone National Park. They are considered the most abundant large mammal in Yellowstone. However, they do migrate and in the winter their number in the park drop to ~4,000 individuals. I was visiting during spring and there were already hundreds if not thousands of elk just in Lamar Valley.
Come winter, many of the elk migrate to areas with less snow and easier grazing. Many of the Yellowstone elk move just south to Jackson where there is a National Elk Refuge. Roughly 7,500 elk winter at this elk refuge. These elk will graze on the most nutritious grasses and grasses they prefer first, then they move to less nutritious grasses and grasses they do not like as much. Eventually, for a couple months in the winter, the National Elk Refuge supplements their diets to get them through the hardest months of winter. They use mechanical equipment to feed the elk roughly 35 tons of alfalfa pellets each day! The goal for the National Elk Refuge is to reduce the number of elk that winter on the refuge so that they do not have to feed as many as they are now.
The male elk are called bulls and they weigh around 700 pounds. They grow antlers which they will shed every year, typically in March or April. These antlers can weigh up to 35 pounds! During peak growth, they will grow roughly an inch per day. I happened to be visiting Yellowstone during late April into early May, thus why I didn’t see any antlers on the male elk. The females are called cows and they weigh around 500 pounds.
They start their lives as calves, weighing ~30 pounds at birth. Within hours of birth, the newborn elk are up and running. These beautiful creatures are all brown with a white rump spot. When they are calves, they are spotted and have a reddish hue to their fur. They are cute, playful, and vulnerable to predation from a variety of creatures including wolves, cougars, grizzly bears, and black bears.
Within hours of birth, the newborn elk are up and running
Did you know?
- The protection of the Yellowstone elk has been a success story. Roughly 15,000 elk have been transplanted from Yellowstone to 38 states, Mexico, and Argentina to help establish elk herds in these areas.
- Elk are a member of the deer family.
- Elk have a four chambered stomach and can process a lot of different vegetation. They eat grasses, flowering plants, shrubs, aspen, cottonwood, willow, and occasionally mushrooms.
- Elk are vulnerable to two diseases, brucellosis and chronic wasting disease. Brucellosis is a non-native bacterial disease that was introduced to the native elk populations from cattle farming in the Yellowstone area back in the 1900’s. Chronic wasting disease is a prion disease, like mad cow disease.
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