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by Angus M. Thuermer Jr., WyoFile
Thousands of wapiti on the National Elk Refuge near Jackson are ready to leave the reserve for their summer ranges.
Following a winter with meager snowpack on the Jackson Hole lowlands, the lanes are open for an early exit. Elk will disperse north into Grand Teton National Park and some farther afield from there.
Biologists will be tracking their various courses using GPS collars fitted on more than 100 female elk. The work aims to refine wildlife managers’ understanding of which elk go where as they split into four principal groups that migrate to Grand Teton, Yellowstone, the Gros Ventre and private land on the valley floor.
The information will be used to determine how hunting seasons can help better manage the refuge’s winter population, which is increasingly made up of elk that summer on private property where they are largely protected from hunting and predators.
As usual, many elk fans debate what’s proper and improper with supplemental winter feeding, hunting seasons based on GPS data, the effect of wolves on elk reproductive success, disease and so on.
The debate recalls a story about a newly appointed National Elk Refuge manager who called the person he was replacing — this was some decades ago — to get a sense of his new challenge. The retiring director summed up the town of Jackson as a friendly hamlet of 2,000 residents, 1,999 of whom were elk biologists.
Science, hunting, wolves and disease don’t have to be forefront this spring when observing thousands of elk lining up to make their short and long journeys. Largely sedentary during the day, the elk rise in the evening to browse, stretch their legs and amble north.
Wildlife watchers can see them — mostly in the morning — when they cross the Gros Ventre River and strike out for lands beyond.
This article was originally published by WyoFile and is republished here with permission. WyoFile is an independent nonprofit news organization focused on Wyoming people, places and policy.
