Amazing Vancouver Island Elk….

September is the beginning of colourful change in the backcountry, as we drove north on a narrow old gravel road situated in a newly reforested area of Northern Vancouver Island. Bracken Fern and Fireweed were changing to fall colours, yellow and tans… Red bunch & high bush berries stood out like trail markers.

Here and there flicker birds searched out insects in sun bleached stumpage and old fallen logs. To the west was an older second growth forest angling its way closer to the road. It was simply a beautiful afternoon, with a few high clouds, and only a whisper of an autumn breeze. We had the road all to ourselves, undisturbed. A truly relaxing time enjoying natural splendour as we slowly edged ahead, hoping to spot a Roosevelt elk in these native surroundings.

Rosie (my Australian Shepherd), son-in-law Will, and I had a good chance of spotting a Bull Elk…. September is mating season when massive heavy antlered male elk (bulls) are on the move, seeking slender females (cows) to start a new generation. Like clockwork as soon as leaves start to turn yellow and shades of brown, elk begin their annual hormone driven mating (rutting) season. Male animals become solitary and roam & bugle an unmistakable high pitched call or squealing… ending in a huff to attract mates. A sound nature has purposed to demonstrate a bull’s fitness and dominance, to attract a harem of up to twenty or more cows!! A prime bull may have as many as thirty cows! Bugles can be heard for kilometres!!. Interested females will answer back in a whine or bleat whistle, signalling romantic intentions.

Elk live in segregated groups, with females and their calves in loose herds while bulls range independently or in small groups of other males (until mating season). They are herbivores feasting on ferns, grasses, sedges, blueberries, salmonberries, mushrooms, and lichens. abundant on North Vancouver Island. In the winter they eat more woody plants, like highbush cranberry, devil’s club, elderberry, and seedlings of Douglas fir and western red cedar. In the wild, the Roosevelt elk live about 12 to 15 years, females living longer than males.

Roosevelt elk, members of the deer family, and indigenous to Vancouver Island. A mature bull can weigh in access of 450 kgs and 1.7 metres at the withers. Cows are smaller, antlerless, weighing about 260 kgs. The Roosevelt elk is the largest elk of the six North America sub species, and named after President Theodore Roosevelt, who helped preserve them. First peoples and settlers valued them for their hides and meat, as do hunters today.

Male elk grow a new set of antlers each year, typically starting in spring and shedding them in late winter. Elk antlers are among the most fascinating features of these majestic animals… and relentlessly sought after by trophy hunters, to display on walls or other places. However, antlers serve a more significant and important biological and ecological role. Composed of bone, antlers can grow at an astonishing rate of 2.5 centimetres per day during peak growth. The size of an elk’s antlers depends on nutrition, and interestingly the amount of sunlight the elk gets. Testosterone levels are boosted by sunlight promoting antlers to grow. Roosevelt Elk antlers can weigh 40 pounds or more in a mature male! During antler formation it is covered by a soft Velvet skin layer containing blood vessels supplying essential antler building blocks and nutrients. Once the antlers are fully grown, the velvet is shed, revealing the hard, fully formed copper brown, ivory tipped bony structure.

Bull elk use their antlers in a proud strutting display of dominance when competing for mates. The greater the size and branching of an elk antler is an indicator of age, strength, overall health, and genetic quality. (Interestingly antlers play an ecological role when shed in the winter by providing calcium and nutrients to small mammals and insects once left on the forest floor). During the rut bull elks will challenge each other for the privilege of mating; charging other bulls with heads down and antlers forward, using the strength of their powerful necks and shoulders to lock antlers aggressively until the weaker one runs away from the harem. Occasionally a fight will cause serious cuts and gouges, but rarely results in death. 

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Earlier in the morning, back at our campsite, we were thrilled to hear a bugle… the unmistakable high pitched call echoing across our nameless lakeside camp. A bull will tilt his head way up, antlers stretching down his back, and loudly call in a display of shear masculine fitness. The sound excited us and we embarked on an afternoon’s photo hunt to photograph a Roosevelt bull, and his harem in the wilds.

Our goal was a distant trail, a favourite wildlife viewing spot of mine, higher in the Nimpkish Valley Provincial Park. It is a remote protected mountainous area located in the Karmutzen Range, within the traditional territory of the Namgis First Nation. The park contains a wonderful variety of wilderness habitats, and a portion of a traditional cross-island First Nation trade route.

As we slowly drove I thought of September as also being an amazing time of transformation in the Wild Kingdom… Days become shorter, a cool crisp aroma is in the air, and subtle changes to the sound of rustling leaves as they brown and fall. The growing season is over, and forest inhabitants are busy preparing in their own way for cold weather and winter’s snows ahead.

Most birds migrate south to warmer climates in the Fall, lending to winter’s silence. Mammals such as bats, bears, and squirrels however, would soon be searching out hibernation dens. Still others of the Wild Kingdom such as Roosevelt Elk, Black-tailed Deer, Marten, Mice, Cougar, Grouse, are preparing to tough out the winter in place. Even these animals too will seek out at the appropriate time sheltered wintering areas within their habitat. Whatever wildlife winter plans are, August & September are the gorging time for wildlife, enjoying nature’s harvest of fish, clams, berries, cone seeds, mushrooms, lichen, grasses. Bountiful food sources building wildlife fat stores in preparation for migration, hibernation, or waiting out the winter months in place. Isn’t nature amazing!

Before arriving at the viewing location Mother Nature in her wonderful way grabbed our immediate attention, where second growth forest came close to our narrow gravel road…. A herd of Roosevelt Elk secreted in the lush maturing evergreen foliage!

There is an old proverb stating “one sometimes can’t see the forest for the trees”… In this instance we could have driven by the elk, not seeing wildlife for love of the forest. A small harem of cows, and a huge mature bull, blended into the edge of the trees hiding in plain view. But we did see him and he saw us… and the Bull became protective of his females putting on a stunning display of agitated dominance…. repeatedly thrashing his tall proud antlers against a small evergreen rendering the trunk bare.

We watched the bull and his harem for about 20 minutes absolutely thrilled…. a magnificent forest monarch in natural habitat; amazingly camouflaged in his home of green regenerating forest amongst of a mixture of conifers, Cedar, Hemlock and Douglas-Fir,

Spellbound we left the great elk and slowly turned around to head back to camp… filled with awe. The huge trophy bull was exactly where he should be… Free to roam the forests of the Wild Kingdom.

Isn’t nature grand!

Safe Travels

Gord Patterson

Photos © Chris Patterson & Bill Shire