JACKSON HOLE CONSERVATION ALLIANCE
P.O. Box 2728
Jackson, WY 83001
(307) 733-9417
www.jhalliance.org
12/20/06
By Franz Camenzind, Ph.D.
Executive Director,
Jackson Hole Conservation Alliance
There has been a great deal of concern raised recently regarding the elk on the National Elk Refuge. With all the words, accusations and actions, one thing has been lost -- a close look at the real numbers.
Between November 1, 2005, and April 18, 2006, 6,730 elk were counted on the National Elk Refuge. Of those, 220 died. ThatŐs a mortality rate of 3.3%, but most impressive is that it represents a 96.7% survival rate through what most would agree was a pretty harsh Jackson Hole winter.
Of the 220 elk that died, cause of death was determined for 114 while the remains of the other 106 were too scattered and devoured to determine how they died. Calf mortality numbered 157, while the remaining 63 mortalities were older elk.
Cause of death was determined for 91 of the 157 calf mortalities. Cause of death could not be determined for the remaining 66. Wolves killed 49 calves, and 64 deaths were attributed to hoof rot-related factors. Interestingly, 22 of the 49 wolf kills had hoof rot, which probably made them more vulnerable to wolf predation. (Forty-two of the calves with hoof rot died of other causes, perhaps starvation, but they were likely weakened first by the hoof disease.)
Hoof rot in wildlife is caused by a bacterium that is almost always confined to areas where animals congregate for long periods, particularly if the areas are damp and strewn with manure -- a good description of the refuge feed lines.
Clearly, wildlife mortalities involve many factors -- disease, predation, climate, habitat condition and who knows what else, but, whatever the cause, you can bet it was influenced by one or several other factors. I donŐt doubt that some calves starved on the refuge last winter, but do we know what their condition was when they arrived there? Were they orphaned during the hunting season and thus less capable of making the migration, of finding food and cover? Were they late arrivals and already weakened? Or were they completely healthy?
ItŐs easy to pick a villain of the day, but difficult to sort out the truth in natural systems. Wildlife populations cycle through all these and a myriad more factors, some environmental, some human-caused. It is this cycling, this removal of the less fit, that provides the blessing of strong, healthy survivors. We measure wildlife by numbers, not by weight. We appreciate wildlife for its wildness, not for its ability to be farmed. Stop feeding the elk and hoof rot disease will diminish, stop feeding the elk and we reduce the prevalence of brucellosis (and the yearly elk calf crop could increase 6 to 8 percent). And, by stopping elk feeding on the refuge, we will have taken the biggest step toward warding off the always-fatal chronic wasting disease.
Every year calves starve on the refuge, but I would bet more die because of the problems brought on by feeding.
The Jackson Hole Conservation Alliance is a non-profit
organization dedicated to responsible land stewardship to ensure that human
activities are in harmony with the areaŐs irreplaceable wildlife, scenic and
other natural resources. The organization has 2,000 members from Jackson Hole
and across the nation.