Wintering Elk

Ninety percent of the elk in the Upper Columbia basin 

winter in or near the wetlands

Winter is a critical season for elk. Particulary for the bulls that enter the winter after an exhausting fall rut. A long winter with dep snow can mean starvation or make elk so weak they become easy pickins for cougar and wolves.

One way to endure winter is to avoid it. But for animals that don’t hibernate or migrate to warmer climates it means having to cope with the snow. It seems that animals  with the longest legs and largest feet in relation to weight are the best adapated for survival in deep snow. Elk have long legs but their hooves are not large enough to keep them from sinking. So when the snow depth reaches two thirds up the elk’s legs - they are in trouble as valuable energy is lost from poughing through snow and digging for food with their hoofs. 

One of the advantages elk have is that they are both grazers and browsers. So when the grasses are buried too deep the elk are able to feed on the shrubs that stick out above the snow.


For news article see The Golden Scoop 

Stories in the Snow

One of the fun things to do this time of year is to go into the wetlands looking for animal tracks in the snow. Pictured here are tracks of a coyote and weasel that cross paths but what is the strange design over their tracks?   The design was made by an elk slipping on ice.