A Silver lining on a very Dark Cloud
The reintroduction of Elk in North Carolina has been, despite a lot of good intentions, close to a failure. Instead of increasing since their reintroduction in 2001 the population has remained about the same and has become unbalanced as the bull numbers are outgrowing cows.
Elk are dieing from parasites as well as predators are killing a lot of the young. The park has taken steps to move some of the bears out of the area and hopefully they’ll be gone long enough to let the calves get big enough to avoid the bears and coyotes. The herd needs additional cows but because of CWD the state has a moratorium on importing elk.
At least one other elk reintroduction project seems to have had more success than efforts in North Carolina.
The University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point introduced 25 elk near the state’s Clam Lake 10 years ago. The herd consisted of three bulls, 11 cows and 11 young elk taken from a herd near Gaylord, Mich.
Today, the herd has 120 animals.
“It was a success right from the start,” said Tim Ginnett, assistant professor of wildlife at the university. “Our herd has done fabulously well even in the midst of a recovering wolf population.”
The news that 10 calves have been born is good news and hopefully they will all make it. The ratio of bulls to cows in this year’s birth will be interesting to hear; hopefully more then 50% will be cows.
[...] Although I haven’t made it up there this summer to see the elk it’s good to read the latest report. My last update about the elk there was 10 calves born this spring. The Park had also taken extra steps by capturing and moving some bears out of the valley to give the calves a chance to grow up a bit before the bears returned. Well it appears to have worked because 8 of the 10 have made it and of those 4 of them are females. This is really good news and there is some speculation that some additional calves were born outside of the valley and not included in this count. [...]
Pingback by Moose Droppings » North Carolina Elk Update — August 18, 2006 @ 1:18 am
[...] you’re a bear in Cataloochee Valley better start packing your bags for a trip to Tennessee. Again this year the National Park plans to capture the bears in the valley and move them out of the area to help the small elk heard and protect the new born calves. The elk [...]
Pingback by Moose Droppings » Soon it Will Be Moving Day — April 25, 2007 @ 10:32 pm