![]() 300 Savage high on the point of its shoulder dropped my first bull like the legendary ton of bricks. The yearling bull passed within slingshot range downslope on the faint spit of a game trail. An elk, modest in stature with more yellowed flanks than its company, was ambling behind several cows. Severely outnumbered and practically surrounded, I was more worried about being detected than trampled, though the latter seemed at least a remote possibility.Īfter several long minutes in hiding, fortune turned my way. Here they were, so close I might have whacked the light brown ribs of a matronly cow with a stone on an underhanded toss. I had dropped into a forest of squatty evergreens from above treeline and almost immediately encountered elk. ![]() Sign up for Montana’s Nonlead Newsletter.Spike bulls are among the most curious elk.The procession of elk on the contour of a steep slope just below me was unnerving. When he escapes the office, Mike explores wild landscapes with his family, always scanning the horizon for wildlife. He frequently writes about the outdoors, with work appearing in Sports Afield, The FlyFish Journal, Backcountry Journal, and Bugle. Mike often connects with the public through his writings and speaking engagements, whether it be to a local group of hunters, or a gymnasium full of middle schoolers. Mike soon initiated studies on scavenger ecology and began investigating the wound ballistics of rifle bullets, the suspected source of lead. Lead can cripple eagles flightless and even kill them. Each winter at MPG Ranch, biologists caught eagles that had lead coursing through their veins. Regardless, lead contamination soon grabbed Mike’s focus. Strangely, the sulfur inside the trap and skeet targets posed the main threat, not the lead in the shotgun pellets. Curious about potential pollution at a historic shooting range at MPG Ranch, he earned an M.S. His career took this trajectory after Mike gained a B.S. Now, understanding weapons is part of his job. Mike shot his first weapon before he could recite the alphabet. Mike McTee is a researcher at MPG Ranch and the author of Wilted Wings: A Hunter’s Fight for Eagles. That would yield a skewed age structure like this: Let’s be more conservative and say that the annual survival rate equaled 50% and we apply that rate for bulls at least 2 ½ years old and into the future. The chance of a bull reaching 6 ½ years old and a having shot at that Bugle cover range from 1/2000 to about 1/6. ![]() Let’s look at the rough probability of a 2 ½ year old bull surviving four seasons to be 6 ½ years old using these survival rates.Ģ6% x 26% x 26% x 26% = 0.05% (worst case) The data do not include the elk whose collars were cut, even though the animals were likely killed by hunters or poachers.īiologists calculated the annual survival rate for bulls in this study to be somewhere between 26% and 64% per year. Some hunters may have passed up shots on bulls that had collars. Many bulls frequented private property that only allowed the harvest of cows. The results may underestimate the true overall mortality because: Here is a breakdown of how the bulls were killed:ĥ4% killed by rifle 23% wounded by rifle and lost 15% killed by archery 8% wounded by archery and lost With a six-week archery season followed by a five-week rifle season, hunters had ample opportunity to fill their over the counter tag. All mortalities were associated with hunters. Were predators to blame? If you said yes, good answer, but no. ( Click here to contact us.)ĥ4% of the bulls shown above were killed. Please contact us with ideas for collaboration. We would like to do more small mammal research. Our bear monitoring efforts seek to document how many bears we have now and where they travel.Ĭlick here for a link to a list of mammals we have seen and photos.Ĭlick here for links to our best mammal footage. Many of the shrubs we have planted, such as hawthorns, choke cherries, and serviceberry, will provide food for bears. The plantings will provide cover for animals using the draw bottoms as travel corridors between the upland forests and the floodplain forests. As of the summer 2012, we have planted more than 30,000 trees and shrubs in these drainages. We are curious about how elk habits will change in response to changes in vegetation communities as restoration activities proceed.īears- The lower elevation draws and drainages at MPG were de-vegetated by herbicide applications and sheep and cattle browsing. We track herd size, the habitat they use for feeding, and the amount of biomass available to them for forage. Fewer elk stay around to raise their calves in the spring and summer. Several monitoring projects are underway.Įlk- Elk numbers fluctuate through the year with herds of several hundred animals moving onto the ranch in the fall and winter. We seek to understand the distribution and abundance of mammals.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |