Elk calving area habitat preference - Please Help

Irrelevant

Irrelevant

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I'm working on a local project that will impact existing elk calving. I remember reading a paper regarding slopes and calving areas. Something to the effect that cow elk prefer calving areas that were less than X% (which I swear was 20% but I could be wrong). If any of you real professionals knows of a paper on the topic I would love a link. I need to build a case for a petition to the County. Thank you very much in advance.
 
I just did a google search using "elk calving preference, slope". I got quite a few hits with the sort of info you're looking for.
 
Rzrbk said:
I just did a google search using "elk calving preference, slope". I got quite a few hits with the sort of info you're looking for.
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I did but none of them, including the one you linked were what I was after. The one you linked just concluded they prefer gentler slopes, but all of the study area was gentle.
 
Where I live the Forest Service has declaired there are no elk calving grounds yet 15 -20 cows calve out on my north field. I don't think the slope is as important as emerging spring vegetation, south slopes, water and security. As predators increase I find them calving closer and closer to my house. As the vegetation matures they move up the slope following the tender shoots and temperature control.
 
I have no data to back this but if they are anything like deer. Security is more important from what I have personally seen. That explains the post above, As predators become more bold and increase in numbers I think you will see elk and deer giving birth in peoples yards. it happens over by the Bridgers all the time. Deer coming down from the mountains giving birth in flower gardens living their best bambi life.
 
Some of the CDA River elk ecology studies from the 80s talk about habitat use and slope, but I don't think it was more around hunting season and wintering. Not calving.

But I did find this after a quick search. But I did not find the Davis and Roberts studies, just other references to them.


Calving normally occurs between May 15 and June 15 with a peak in activity about June 1 (Moroz 1976, Schlegel 1976). Calving frequently occurs on secluded slopes of 15 percent or less on microsites within areas which may have up to 40 percent slopes (Davis 1970, Roberts 1974). Typical calving habitat commonly contains open foraging areas adjacent to dense woody vegetation that can serve as hiding cover. Most cows appear to have traditional areas they return to each year at calving time. Sometimes elk calve on or adjacent to winter ranges whereas other times they migrate to summer range before calving-depending on the rate of snowmelt and plant development (Hershey and Leege 1982).
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The Bracken and Musser 1993 data showed Colockum cow elk prefer slopes 10 degrees or less for all seasons, but I don't have the full report handy and didn't see anything specific to calving. You might ask Jeff Bernatowicz at DFW, he's probably familiar with it.
 
kwyeewyk said:
The Bracken and Musser 1993 data showed Colockum cow elk prefer slopes 10 degrees or less for all seasons, but I don't have the full report handy and didn't see anything specific to calving. You might ask Jeff Bernatowicz at DFW, he's probably familiar with it.
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That's a really handy reference. I'm not going to lie, WDFW doesn't appear to be the asset I'd hoped they'd be regarding this project.
 
Your state game dept should have mapped calving areas that you can use to show location. I have also found research papers online with gps tracking info for some areas I have looked into.
 
WapitiBob said:
Your state game dept should have mapped calving areas that you can use to show location. I have also found research papers online with gps tracking info for some areas I have looked into.
Click to expand...
Thanks, but that's not actually what I'm after in this case, everyone is aware the elk calve at this location. the key is trying to quantity the quality of the habitat... and because a development in involved, their paid consultant has a different set of "best available science" that we have.
 
dx.doi.org

Prioritizing Conservation of Ungulate Calving Resources in Multiple-Use Landscapes

Background Conserving animal populations in places where human activity is increasing is an ongoing challenge in many parts of the world. We investigated how human activity interacted with maternal status and individual variation in behavior to affect reliability of spatially-explicit models...
dx.doi.org dx.doi.org
https://dx.doi.org/10.1139/Z10-061 (probably not useful)
 
kwyeewyk said:
The Bracken and Musser 1993 data showed Colockum cow elk prefer slopes 10 degrees or less for all seasons, but I don't have the full report handy and didn't see anything specific to calving. You might ask Jeff Bernatowicz at DFW, he's probably familiar with it.
Click to expand...
Not available electronically but WDFW is sending me a hard copy.
 
I can get electronic copies of the ones I linked and probably others if you've found some but run into access issues.
 
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