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Elk Biology

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Elk Biology

Postby Tigger » 08 14, 2018 •  [Post 1]

I was listening to a very good podcast yesterday on elk hunting, but something they said made me want more. They were talking about how you need to find where the elk are feeding and that they feed on grass. Okay, great. One small problem. There is literally grass almost everywhere and where we hunt we have a lot of timber! So diving down deeper, how do you find the grass they want to eat? There are some meadows that are full of grass....but most don't have elk sign in them. Our success in locating elk the past has been using the Corey Jacobson model...run and call and find vocal elk. Well also spend some time around saddles. So my question is, how do you find where elk are feeding? Specifically, because there is food everywhere! Just boot leather?

Also, water. there is water everywhere so I am thinking we just write off water as a way to find elk (although maybe this year there is less). Every bottom has a creek in it.
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Re: Elk Biology

Postby Swede » 08 14, 2018 •  [Post 2]

Tigger you are right. In many areas food and water are plentiful in the summer-fall hunting times. You have to go where the sign indicates the critters are. Even where there are grasses, some are more nutritious than others. Where I have hunted elk sedge is abundant, but it doesn't get eaten until after the first good frost, unless the cattle have eaten everything else. Willow and elderberry are well liked. Mushrooms are a delicacy after the first good rains when the cooler weather sets in. Still, always go where the sign shows you have elk activity. I don't have a map showing where the good forage is that elk are feeding on.
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Re: Elk Biology

Postby Indian Summer » 08 14, 2018 •  [Post 3]

Advising an elk hunter to hunt near food... grass, is like telling a pheasant hunter in Iowa to look for cornfields. Especially during archery when there’s food in the timber. It’s about elk preferences. Location. Escape routes and approach routes. The only way to figure that out is, you guessed it, boot leather.
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Re: Elk Biology

Postby Idahonian » 08 14, 2018 •  [Post 4]

This is a good question that I've been pondering as a new hunter. I've seen dark, marshy, smallish meadows in the timber. Elk seem to be in and around those areas. I see evidence of elk tromping through, bedding, and wallowing in those areas. I thought elk feed in those meadows, but I'm wondering if I'm wrong. I'm thinking that the elk are perhaps feeding on more open slopes on the younger grasses and using the meadows more in the daytime. Any thoughts on how elk use those 1-5 acre, marshy meadows in the dark timber?

(I certainly know that elk are where they are, follow the sign, etc. I'm trying to better understand why they are where they are, and where they might also be, and otherwise put together some understanding of behavior.)
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Re: Elk Biology

Postby ElkNut1 » 08 14, 2018 •  [Post 5]

Tigger, you have the answer right there in the ElkNut APP that you have. Go to Full Moon Tactics under Sequences in the menu, it shows the fastest way to locate both Feeding & Bedding areas, works like a charm in any country!

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Re: Elk Biology

Postby Tigger » 08 14, 2018 •  [Post 6]

Paul, ahhhh, yes.....the lightbulb cometh on! I read that before but my lizard brain didn't remember it. I found it again under tactics/utilizing a full moon.

So that is one great method. The last time we hunted this area, I did bugle at night some with no responses (although I wasn't a very good caller). I will do it for sure since we have a full moon.

How about other ideas?
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Re: Elk Biology

Postby Lefty » 08 14, 2018 •  [Post 7]

Indian Summer wrote:Advising an elk hunter to hunt near food... grass, is like telling a pheasant hunter in Iowa to look for cornfields. Especially during archery when there’s food in the timber. It’s about elk preferences. Location. Escape routes and approach routes. The only way to figure that out is, you guessed it, boot leather.

Good one!!! :lol:

Where I use to hunt the elk would travel 5-20 miles for what they wanted. fresh water and mid summer beet tops late summer corn on the cob and September that was the hook up place for bulls looking for the ladies then October and November its alfalfa but thats just a light dinner or snack food then feeding on cheet and bunch grass on the way back to bed

Elk aren't any different than people or other animals they dont eat just grass or one type of grass.

Im still learning way too much about elk biology :oops: :roll:
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Re: Elk Biology

Postby Beendare » 08 14, 2018 •  [Post 8]

That was a good podcast?

..."Elk eat grass".....

Oh my......
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Re: Elk Biology

Postby Tigger » 08 15, 2018 •  [Post 9]

Beendare,
Yeah, I wasn't really that descriptive on the podcast, was I? It was 2.5 hours long and that was one little tiny piece.
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Re: Elk Biology

Postby RAMMONT » 08 15, 2018 •  [Post 10]

Either search your local game and fish website for biological studies on elk habitat or contact the local game manager and ask what kind of grass is the top of the food chain for local elk. Around my area they like Blue Bunch Wheatgrass and Idaho Fescue, basically grasses with wheat-like pods on it. Don't forget, while elk prefer to graze grasses they will also browse forbs and sapling trees. That's why burns are said to be good places to hunt, a variety of graze and browse will start to grow in recently burned areas and, if better food isn't available anywhere close by, they will go to the burns to get a little nutritional variety. Later, when sapling pines and other kinds of trees begin to grow in the old burn, the elk will eat the tips of the branches and/or the bark, depending on the time of year and how hungry they are.
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Re: Elk Biology

Postby cohunter » 08 15, 2018 •  [Post 11]

Elk eat all kinds of stuff... They may travel miles to find an alfalfa field or water - they're just like people in that. But you'll find the most people hanging around the best buffet. Same with elk. Look for varied habitat - the more kinds of food you can find in close proximity to one another, the greater odds you'll see elk there on any given day. Good grass, yes... But also fruits, nuts, quakies and other browse...
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Re: Elk Biology

Postby Swede » 08 15, 2018 •  [Post 12]

What kinds of fruits and nuts are you referring to Cohunter? The only fruit I find on public land is rare, and limited to a few apple trees along main roads. The quakies I have observed don't get any attention until winter.
Grasses and sedges make up most (90%+) of an elk's diet and shrubs most of the remainder.
Tip: If you want to find elk in cattle country look to slopes over 50%. You will get away from the cattle which appears to be what the elk are doing too. The area I have been hunting has only a few niches of over 50% slope, so the elk leave for the ranch. Another problem is hunters moving in and going after the elk.
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Re: Elk Biology

Postby cohunter » 08 16, 2018 •  [Post 13]

Swede, in my area elk love service berries - this time of year in a good berry year the elk are this stripping berries from the trees. In a good acorn year their droppings are so full of acorn pieces it looks like it must hurt, after the first freeze they eat chokecherries like candy. Fresh green growth on aspens or alder is eaten all summer (and the beginning of archery). Yes, 90% of an elk's diet consists of grasses and sedges but elk seek out those special crops just like a junior high kid and a vending machine.
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Re: Elk Biology

Postby Swede » 08 16, 2018 •  [Post 14]

cohunter wrote:Swede, in my area elk love service berries - this time of year in a good berry year the elk are this stripping berries from the trees. In a good acorn year their droppings are so full of acorn pieces it looks like it must hurt, after the first freeze they eat chokecherries like candy. Fresh green growth on aspens or alder is eaten all summer (and the beginning of archery). Yes, 90% of an elk's diet consists of grasses and sedges but elk seek out those special crops just like a junior high kid and a vending machine.


Interesting. Here in Oregon the acorns are pretty much a lower elevation crop and they come off in the mid to late fall. I see no special interest in Serviceberry during the hunting seasons. The deer like it in the spring, and I suppose elk too, and it may be browsed into the fall, but it is not anything I have focused on for elk hunting. Elderberry seems to get foraged on quite a bit, but it is the foliage I see getting hit. Also bulls will rub on it.
Every place is different, and I have to admit I have not hunted the southwest. Thanks
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Re: Elk Biology

Postby Beendare » 08 16, 2018 •  [Post 15]

Well I think its important to use the right factors as a hunter.

Focusing on food sources might work on private ground or limited areas where there is very little hunter pressure.

Same thing with ..........Looking at habitat on GE or maps.

I have a huge reference book on elk. There are a couple laughable comments in this 'Elk Bible' as I've heard it termed. They claim elk will not inhabit steep slopes...I suppose the author has never hunted an OTC unit.

My point; The thing I see is hunter pressure being the major factor in hunting seasons....and I kill elk every year using this principle.
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Re: Elk Biology

Postby Swede » 08 16, 2018 •  [Post 16]

Beendare wrote:They claim elk will not inhabit steep slopes...


The person(s) that came up with that line is ignorant of elk. I have read and heard that elk were once a plains animals. I don't remember the sources, but some were biologists. The claim was that they found skeletons and antlers of elk on the plains that were centuries old. Skeletons on the plains apparently caused then to conclude they were plains animals. I find that argument very unconvincing too. I would presume they came down out of the mountains in the winter just like they do now, and some winter died on the plains, like they do now. Elk have no aversion to steep ground or rough terrain. I don't think they ever did.
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Re: Elk Biology

Postby RAMMONT » 08 17, 2018 •  [Post 17]

Beendare wrote:Well I think its important to use the right factors as a hunter.

Focusing on food sources might work on private ground or limited areas where there is very little hunter pressure.

Same thing with ..........Looking at habitat on GE or maps.

I have a huge reference book on elk. There are a couple laughable comments in this 'Elk Bible' as I've heard it termed. They claim elk will not inhabit steep slopes...I suppose the author has never hunted an OTC unit.

My point; The thing I see is hunter pressure being the major factor in hunting seasons....and I kill elk every year using this principle.


Hunter pressure forces the elk to respond but they still need to eat. Hunting pressure simply keeps the elk on the move more and you'll have a better chance of seeing them. If, on the other hand, you are trying to find them while they are bedded then you'd better be looking for patches of food too since they usually bed close to food and water.

Knowing what they prefer to eat and adding that in to your bag of tricks just helps narrow down the places you should be looking at and might reduce the number of miles you'll have to cover.
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Re: Elk Biology

Postby Indian Summer » 08 17, 2018 •  [Post 18]

I find food to be wall to wall where I hunt. So looking for elk feed sure isn’t a way to narrow things down. Besides... elk are nomadic. So even if you did find a preferred food source they may or may not be there during a given week. They might not be back for 2-4 weeks because guess what? There’s another preferred food in another preferred location somewhere else.

I’m with Beendare.... find your way around hunter pressure and you’ll find elk because that’s what they are doing. If they have to eat rocks to avoid being shot through the lungs I’m pretty sure rocks will be their temporary preferred food source!
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