Cow: An average-sized cow will weigh around 500 pounds.New Born Calf: On average, a newborn calf will weigh in at around 35 pounds.Rocky Mountain Elk have the largest horns.įrom the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation website, average elk sizes are as follows. Roosevelt Elk are the largest in body size, while Tule Elk is the smallest. The four surviving subspecies of North American are Rocky Mountain, Roosevelt, Manitoban, and Tule. Mature bull elk have large antlers, which can reach over four feet from tip to tip. However, it is one of the largest land animals in its range, which stretches from North America to Central and East Asia.Įlk have a greyish tan to light brown body, a yellowish rump patch, and dark chocolate brown legs, neck, and head. In the Cervidae family, the elk is smaller in size only to the Moose. They look more like a large, tan deer than a moose.Įlk are among the largest members of the Cervidae or deer family. This article deals with North American Elk or Wapiti, though. European Elk look almost identical to what North Americans call Moose. Elk numbers are monitored by the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife which also controls the hunting of this species.That depends on what continent you are standing on. Although they are not considered threatened in Oregon, careful forest management is essential to maintaining healthy populations. ![]() Fragmentation of the elk’s habitat by logging and urban development have isolated and reduced many populations. ![]() In fact, coastal elk spend most of their lives in the same area with the same herd unless they are disturbed by people or predators. In the coastal mountains, the abundance of food and cover, combined with milder winters, mean the elk can be seen year-round as they rarely migrate like other populations. Roosevelt elk can be found in meadows, woodlands and mountainous areas of both the Coast Range Mountains and the Cascade Mountains. Elk are often considered a nuisance species due to their tendency to damage trees, crops and ornamental plants common in populated areas. Historically, gray wolves also fed on this animal but have been hunted to extinction in most of Oregon. Cougars and humans are their main predators today. Bull elk are much louder, producing both deep grunts and piercing trumpet-like calls heard mostly during mating season.Īll elk are herbivores which subsist on ferns, shrubs, lichens, grasses and similar browse plants. Females will mew to their calves or to sound an alarm. Elk produce a variety of sounds to communicate with each other. ![]() These depressions are known as “wallows.” The area around the wallows will be saturated by elk urine, which has a very strong musky odor and is the animal’s primary tool for marking territory. During the days, they usually sleep in depressions they dig in the ground with their hooves or antlers. Calves are usually born the following Spring.Įlk are primarily nocturnal animals and only become active after dusk. When the rutting season begins, usually in late-August, males will assemble harems of up to sixty cows. Therefore, an elk herd is generally composed of cows, calves and adolescents which can be either male or female. Mature males have large antlers with a distinctive three-point tip.Įlk are matriarchal, meaning that the herds are generally led by females with the males living separately except during breeding periods. They will shed their coats twice a year and may appear lighter and more reddish in the summer. The neck is dark brown or black with a tan body and a pale rump patch. Both genders have similar coloring, which is darker than other elk species. Cows will usually not weigh more than 625 lbs (283 kg). Bulls can stand as high as 10 feet (3 m) and weigh between 700 and 1,100 lbs (317 to 499 kg). Roosevelt elk (sometimes referred to as Olympic elk) are the largest of the four North American subspecies.
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