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10 Fascinating Facts About Elk That Will Blow Your Mind

Male elk, one of the biggest mammals in North America, may reach well over 700 pounds, however, they often lose weight when they are not reproducing in the winter.

Females often weigh 500 pounds or less on average. The Shawnee people gave the elk their native name, “wapiti,” which translates to “white rump,” in reference to the animal’s light patch of beige fur on its otherwise dark brown body.

The following 10 Fascinating Facts About Elk That Will Blow Your Mind from their recognizable “bugle” cry to their enormous size.

1. Only Males Have Antlers

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Only male elk have antlers, unlike certain other deer species, including reindeer. In the spring, they start to develop their distinctive antlers, which they then lose every winter.

Elk antlers are coated in “velvet,” a thin coating of skin that sheds as the temperature gets warm in the summer, while they are still growing.

During the mating season, male elk use their antlers to compete with one another, lowering their heads and hitting them together to gain power and attract female attention.

2. They’re the Loudest Members of the Deer Family

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During their mating seasons, male elk utilize their high-pitched bugling to entice females. A human kid typically has a fundamental frequency of 0.3 kilohertz, therefore this loud bellowing sound, which is also used to promote territory in the winter, has a fundamental frequency of 2 kilohertz or more. There is no vocal animal that can match its skills relative to size.

3. Elk Are Often Mistaken for Moose

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Elk and moose may be distinguished from one another in a number of ways, but the two most obvious ones are size and antler form. Elk typically stand between three and five feet tall, whereas moos often reach heights of up to 6.5 feet from hoof to shoulder.

Elk antlers often have an extended form with tips that come off the massive beams, although male moose also have broader, flat antlers. The easiest way to distinguish them, nevertheless, is by their social organization. While elk move in vast groups, moose are far more lonely and love hanging out by themselves.

4. They Prefer the Cold

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Elk nearly always become more active when the weather becomes cooler, regardless of the place they call home. During the mating season, which occurs in the winter and fall as well as in the early spring, you are more likely to spot them.

Elk spend the majority of their summer grazing and browsing at Iowa’s Neal Smith National Wildlife Refuge in the early mornings and late evenings, preferring shade and avoiding the sun.

5. They Can Help Restore Ecosystems

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Through their feeding and browsing, elk have a significant role in influencing the plant communities within their own habitats. Elk have also been brought to a number of national wildlife refuges, much like bison, to aid in the restoration of grass prairie ecosystems.

The majority of their diet consists of grass and wildflowers, but they also feed on trees and shrubs like deer do, which encourages and stimulates the growth of those prairie plants while reducing tree and shrub overgrowth.

Elk are a crucial source of food for big predators like brown bears. A 2014 research found that around 40% of known elk reintroduction efforts in eastern North America were deemed ineffective.

6. Elk Chew Their Cud Like Cows

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In the summer, elk consume grasses, sedges, and herbaceous floral plants. In the winter, they consume woody trees including cedar, jack pine, and red maple. They are ruminant animals, just like cows, which means they regurgitate their meal but keep chewing it again to help indigestion.

Elk generally feed in many of the same locations that cattle do in the summer and fall, overlapping each other’s territories by more than 60%, according to a 2006 research in the Rocky Mountains.

7. Calves Are Kept Hidden After They’re Born

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For the first several days of their existence, baby elk are concealed. Female elk conceal their newborn calves under a cover of tall grass or dense brush after giving birth, where they remain immobile for around 16 days.

Aside from having practically little fragrance at birth to deter predators, calves also have white patches on their bodies that assist hide them by breaking up their contour and resembling specks of light.

In contrast to males, who spend less than 10% of their time scanning for predators, females giving birth to calves spend more than 25% of their time doing so at Yellowstone National Park.

8. Elk Populations Are Resilient

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Elk are listed as “Least Concern” species on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species, and as a result of conservation efforts by both individual people and the Department of Natural Resources, their population has grown over time.

For instance, the population of the Californian subspecies also known as tule elk, which had decreased to less than five individuals in 1875, has increased to roughly 3,900 by 2010 as a result of stringent conservation efforts.

9. Elk Are Incredibly Social

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Elk inhabit vast communities known as herds, which can number in the hundreds or even thousands. Herds are gender-segregated, but they are matriarchal, meaning that one dominant female, or “cow,” controls them.

The “Jackson Elk Herd,” which is thought to be one of the biggest on record, will move from the National Elk Refuge in Wyoming to southern Yellowstone in 2022 with an estimated 11,000 elk.

10. Elk can run at speeds of up to 35 miles per hour

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Elk are incredibly agile and quick for their size. These magnificent beasts can go up to 35 mph while weighing up to 1,000 pounds. They can easily navigate rough terrain and leap over barriers thanks to their powerful, musculature legs and well-adapted hooves.

This extraordinary agility is crucial for survival since it enables them to flee from wolves and bears, among other predators. Additionally, being one of nature’s most successful and adaptable herbivores, its quick navigation of difficult terrain assures access to fresh eating grounds and water supplies.