Hunting Washington Forum

Big Game Hunting => Elk Hunting => Topic started by: vandeman17 on July 23, 2017, 09:52:57 AM

Title: Cows with calves
Post by: vandeman17 on July 23, 2017, 09:52:57 AM: With the hard, long winter we had, I was a little worried about what it did to the herds. I know it hit the deer around me hard. I was out scouting this weekend and had a herd of elk come out of a deep, nasty drainage and cross the road in front of me. I didn't count but I would say at least 35-40 came out in groups of 2-4. What I was happy to see was that there was at least 10-15 healthy looking calves in the herd. My cameras have also showed similar numbers of calves as well!
Title: Re: Cows with calves
Post by: elkboy on July 23, 2017, 10:53:51 AM: Awesome! Thanks for sharing. I think elk can weather those winters more easily than deer can, with their greater vertical reach and ability to digest less-nutritious browse.
Title: Re: Cows with calves
Post by: kentrek on July 23, 2017, 11:57:40 AM: I thought deer are the ones who can eat nearly anything ??
Title: Re: Cows with calves
Post by: zwickeyman on July 23, 2017, 12:02:05 PM: Cow/ratio where I was scouting in 472 last weekend was 7 calves per 10 cows. I have been hunting up there for over 40 years and have never seen it so high.

On a bad note though, out of 70 elk never saw a spike. That's not good.
Title: Re: Cows with calves
Post by: elkboy on July 23, 2017, 12:18:46 PM: Quote from: kentrek on July 23, 2017, 11:57:40 AM
I thought deer are the ones who can eat nearly anything ??

Hungry deer can eat a lot of things, for sure, especially in winter when their gut flora has shifted to favor processing woody foods. But elk have a much larger rumen that can break down relatively low-quality foods. Utah's Mule Deer Working Group has a good summary sheet highlighting differences between elk and mule deer:
https://wildlife.utah.gov/hunting/pdf/mdwg/mdwg-4_elk.pdf

The differences will be even greater between elk and whitetails or blacktails, which require high nutrition foods (fireweed, trailing blackberry, young leaves of other shrubs, etc.) for a good part of the year.
Title: Re: Cows with calves
Post by: kentrek on July 23, 2017, 02:06:58 PM: Quote from: elkboy on July 23, 2017, 12:18:46 PM
Quote from: kentrek on July 23, 2017, 11:57:40 AM
I thought deer are the ones who can eat nearly anything ??

Hungry deer can eat a lot of things, for sure, especially in winter when their gut flora has shifted to favor processing woody foods. But elk have a much larger rumen that can break down relatively low-quality foods. Utah's Mule Deer Working Group has a good summary sheet highlighting differences between elk and mule deer:
https://wildlife.utah.gov/hunting/pdf/mdwg/mdwg-4_elk.pdf

The differences will be even greater between elk and whitetails or blacktails, which require high nutrition foods (fireweed, trailing blackberry, young leaves of other shrubs, etc.) for a good part of the year.

:tup: cool
Title: Re: Cows with calves
Post by: bearpaw on July 23, 2017, 02:26:10 PM: Elk can survive in much deeper snow than deer and for a longer time, tough winters are usually the hardest on deer.
Title: Re: Cows with calves
Post by: bracer40 on July 23, 2017, 11:06:38 PM: Our Eastern herds also do a fair bit of migrating to gov't feed lots too.
Title: Re: Cows with calves
Post by: nwwanderer on July 24, 2017, 07:32:54 AM: Thanks for the Utah report. Single trait selection, spike only hunts, is very hard on that trait. You can expect fewer spikes over time.
Title: Re: Cows with calves
Post by: ffbowhunter on July 24, 2017, 09:32:19 AM: I noticed the same thing, I have never seen so many calves!