Saturday, November 30, 2013

Montana Elk Mystery Solved With GPS Tracking

Elk hunting is very popular in Montana, and the Lost Trail Wildlife Refuge near Kalispell never fails to disappoint. The lush forests of Montana are home to spectacular wildlife, including bears, wolves, moose, turkeys, bobcats and elk. The abundant population of wildlife make hunting a great part of the culture in the state. Elk hunting season occurs in the fall, when the local wildlife population is peaking. Hunters noticed that the elk seemed to disappear during the summer, but no one knew where they went. That is, until recently.


elk-1174611-mThe mystery was solved by Stacy Courville, a wildlife biologist with the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes, with the help of GPS technology. Last February, she fitted three cow elk from the Hog Heaven area with GPS collars in order to track where they went during the summer. All three left Hog Heaven in April and travelled much further than anyone expected. One of the elk was tracked into Canada, around 60 miles from where it started.


“We knew they weren’t summering on the reservation,” said Courville. “I didn’t know we were collecting elk from that far north.” Many of the locals assumed the elk just moved a little further into the timber during the summer.


“The Lost Trail elk herd is one of the most popular hunts in Northwest Montana,” Jim Williams said, Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks Region One wildlife manager. “Everyone had lots of theories about where they went … We always assumed they were in the timber somewhere, but lo and behold, they were wintering on the Flathead Nation.”


“Wildlife migrations are some of the greatest spectacles in nature,” Williams explained. “They are very variable. Some are very short, they can be extremely long, some are seasonal, some are one-way distances and some are two-way distances and others are just changes in elevations.”



Montana Elk Mystery Solved With GPS Tracking

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