This study would provide a nice baseline for other management decisions. For instance, non-motorized hunting areas could be looked at. While it's not a surprise, actually enumerating the impact of hunters on their movement is helpful. I'm curious if they found the animals also moving to areas with less hunters in motorized vehicles. Do they begin movement during archery? Do firearm hunts move them more. You could also see what density of hunters tended to cause movement etc.
You have to have the data to make these sorts of choices and to add to the data set with other questions/ studies.
The private land hunts are nice but I am sure they are more expensive than public land hunts. A study like this could lead to a more effective way to structure hunts on public lands that keep the elk on those public lands.
I am an admitted lover of data. Often what others think is common sense turns out not to be common sense. In this case this is a great beginning to what could be an even better set of data as to how, why and when the animals move to private ground.
