WinterTime Elk

Wintertime Elk

There is now way around it. Wintertime is difficult for all wild animals. The vegetation has long dried up. The creeks and springs are frozen in most places. Snow, wind and cold is what elk have to deal with all day and all night for up to 6 months. I won’t say the elk in Colorado have it easy but we have been luckily to see extended Indian Summers and relatively short, mild winters. An elk’s winter range is very small compared to their summer range. So elk move very little. First, to conserve precious energy. Second, there isn’t as much land to graze during winter. However, this makes it easier to find elk. I’ll never admit elk are a sure thing to locate but during the winter your chances of seeing elk, sometimes huge herds of elk, increases a lot. I’m not a betting man but I would put money down on a nice creek valley that doesn’t see a lot of human traffic. That’s where you will find elk this time of year. Because the grasses, willows and aspens that grow near water are still a favorite of elk during winter. Even through the winter grasses have no nutritional value to them. Imagine living on bread and water all winter long. Come March you’d be skinny and worn out. That’s why the best bet for an elk is to gain as much fat reserves during the summer.

Elk will graze near a creek during the nights, early mornings and late afternoons. Nothing different about that so far, but then they will bed on a wooded ridge nearby as long as the food source remains and they don’t get spooked. They’ll repeat the same routine every day for as long as they can. My brother discovered a place where we could hike into the aspens at first light and sit. Sure enough the bulls would return from the meadow to bed right near us. As long as we didn’t spook them they would do this every single day. My suggestion is find that ridge near a creek and scout it out. More often it will be near private property because more elk winter range is disappearing every year. If you’re lucky to live out a little further then locate these places despite roads and human dwellings. Elk are desperate this time of year. Remember food may replace their need for safety during winter. Elk don’t need running water to drink. They’ll get their fill while they graze. Snow covers most of their food source. Aspens are a favorite place for elk to visit. This photo reveals the bulls I was after have been kicking the snow away to get to the grasses near the base of an aspen tree.

I don’t know what type of plant this is but the stems are wood. That doesn’t stop a hungry elk from chewing off the ends. They will regurgitate the food later from their four-chambered stomach to chew again and swallow.

The result is a lousy diet as this photo of scat reveals. Their diet is dry and very unhealthy in the winter. Elk scat in the winter resembles black olives in shape and size. Elk still travel trails in the winter. Their habits and instincts allow them to remember these paths to and from feeding areas.

A large bull will have a hoof print about the size of the palm of a large human hand. I’ve seen them bigger too! One thing you can never be really sure of is the freshness of a track in snow. All I can say is this; elk tracks are more fresh than you think. This print took me to the location where two large bulls (6x6s) were bedded. The closer I got the more fresh the print looked. The snow around it was crystallized and whiter than the snow around it. Tracking elk in the snow can be boom or bust. But I’ll take it over no tracks at all! No, I didn’t get any photos of these bulls. My approach was too noisy despite my attempts to move only when the wind blew. My sounds made them nervous and they left, barking as they got further and further away.

Elk will eat the entire bark off of a fallen aspen tree. If you find a freshly fallen aspen then sit nearby and wait. Elk will come to it like metal to a magnet.

A closer shot of the aspen reveals how the elk peals the bark off. Aspen bark is very soft. The tree is easily marked up from elk taking bites. A sure sign of elk wintering in the area is the state of the aspen trees in the area.

This old aspen has seen many generations of elk come and go. Every single aspen in this area was scarred by elk. And there were literally thousands of aspen trees in this grove.

What do elk eat in the winter? Anything they can! Elk will literally nibble and scrape the smallest blade of grasses to survive winter.