Biology of a Colonizing, Unharvested Population of Elk in Western Washington

Abstract

The indigenous Roosevelt elk (Cervus elaphus roosevelti) of the northwest coast of North America was largely extirpated from the west slopes of the Cascade Mountains of Washington State in the late 1800s. In the early 1900s Rocky Mountain elk (C.e. nelsoni) were introduced in the Cascades. By the late 1960s these elk, having interbred with the surviving roosevelti, had spread to the Cedar River Watershed, a protected water source for the city of Seattle. The biology of this natural, unharvested elk population was intensively studied from 1970 to 1988, through its establishment, increase, and stabilization, by means of radiotelemetry and direct observation of individually marked elk. Three major hypotheses were tested, and supported by the data.