Elk Workshop

Randy and I attended an AZ Game and Fish Department Elk Watching Workshop last night. We learned about elk biology and habits. We have been hearing the bull elks in the evening as this is their mating season (late September until mid October). The "bugle" they make is quite a sound. Bull Elk Bugling

A bull elk stands 5 feet at the shoulder and is 9 feet in length. They weigh 600 pounds to half a ton. The cows weigh 500 pounds and the calves that are born in the spring weigh 100 pounds by fall. There are 30-35,000 elk in the state. Their predators are mountain lions and bears, and these critters mostly prey on the calves. Each cow only has one calf and a herd of 100 cows will have 40-60 calves.
Part of the workshop was jumping on a school bus and taking a field trip to view the elk in their natural habitat in the Rim Country. We drove about 20 minutes outside of town to a cattle ranch and waited for over an hour in a meadow. No elk.......just cows.

The rancher was roping cows. He stopped by to tell us that the herd had been in the meadow every night this week.....except, of course, on the night we were there to see them! He said the day had been hotter (92 degrees) and the elk would most likely be down in the meadow later in the evening. We had to leave as it was getting dark and we couldn't see much out of our binoculars or spotting scopes.

I am not disappointed as I know I will be seeing many elk. There is a lot of elk scat on our building site. (The scat looks like Milk Duds.)