The Olympic Peninsula, west of Seattle, is home to black tailed deer, Roosevelt elk, and people who enjoy the antics of Daily Kos.
Roosevelt elk used to inhabit the land from Vancouver Island and southern British Columbia to northern California. Their territory shrunk with increased European settlement. Today, there are about 200 in mainland BC and 3000 or so on Vancouver Island. More live on the Olympic Peninsula and western Cascades in Washington, Oregon, and some on northern California. About 12,000 live on the Olympic Peninsula.
Elk, often called moose (the same species), of the Pacific Northwest are considered different from the more plentiful Rocky Mountain elk. The two types look similar, although not exactly alike. There is anecdotal evidence of interbreeding, so they’re probably the same species. Sort of like the Irish and the English.
Anyway, the elk that are my neighbors are Roosevelts.
Why Roosevelt? They are named for Theodore Roosevelt. Grover Cleveland created the Olympic Forest Preserve in 1897 to help protect the forest ecosystem from deforestation. Teddy Roosevelt designated part of the Olympic Forest Reserve as Mount Olympus National Monument in 1909 in an effort to preserve the native habitat of the elk herds. In 1938, Franklin Roosevelt established the Olympic National Park to protect and preserve the landscape and animals. But Teddy is the president honored in naming.
Elk are relatively versatile, and often occupy a range of habitats, from meadows and forests of the Olympic Mountains down to the lowland rain forests, where there is ample food.
Rain forests? Yes. Once upon a time, a huge rainforest stretched from northern California to Alaska. Today, there are few temperate rainforests outside of the Olympic Park. On the west side of the Park, about 12 feet of rain falls on a yearly basis. There are four discrete rainforests: Hoh, Quinault, Queets, and Bogchiel. They host mosses, ferns, Douglas fir, red alders, Western hemlocks and Sitka spruce. And elk.
The elk are seasonally migratory, spending the summer months in the mountains and on snow fields and moving to lower elevations in the winter to avoid winter storms and find food. They feed mainly on ferns, shrubs, and lichens, as well as meadow grasses.
Elk don’t seem to care for human populations. The deer treat our small town and our small gardens like their own private meadow. But the elk stay away. Roosevelt elk are the largest herbivore on the Peninsula, making them an important indicator to the health of the ecosystem. They must eat a significant amount because of their size, and can over-graze and deplete a vegetative area if there are too many. With not enough grazing animals, predators may not be able to survive. While their only main natural predators are bears or mountain lions, if an elk dies, its size can provide food for hundreds of organisms from large predators to scavengers and decomposers.
Elk like meadows and areas that are easy to travel through. They browse on the ferns, the salmonberry vines and the blackberry brambles, opening up the understory so that they and many other native flora and fauna can thrive. This is especially useful in the rain forests, where unchecked undergrowth can take over.
Elk create wallows in secluded areas where they feel safe. They wallow in these muddy depressions, coating their fur in mud, which helps to rid them of parasites and protect from flying pests. When these wallows are abandoned, they fill up with water, becoming habitat for frogs and salamanders.
A herd is usually made up of about 20 adult females, their dependent children and sometimes a male. Males are sometimes solitary and sometimes part of a small group of other males.
Elk mate in the fall (September) and give birth to usually one calf in late spring (May or June). Calves are born with spots, like deer. They will nurse for a couple of months, although they are eating grass before a month old. The young will stay with their mother until the next spring, Females are sexually mature at 16 months, males at 2 years. Life expectancy in the wild is about 15 years.
Elk hunting season on the Olympic Peninsula is in November and December. Which elk can be legally hunted varies by location and hunters should check with the Fish and Wildlife people.
I know that deer are much more plentiful than elk but I don’t know how many of us Kossacks are here.