Expanding Elk Numbers, Range
Prompts Search For More Data

By David Bowser

LAS CRUCES, N.M. — Ranchers and outfitters across New Mexico report increasing numbers of elk, but it has fallen to a wildlife biologist here to put numbers to those reports.

Jon Boren, a wildlife specialist with New Mexico's Cooperative Extension Service, is launching a study to determine the numbers and distribution of elk and their impact on livestock grazing in the Land of Enchantment.

"We're in the process of getting the proposal ready," says Boren. "We've gone out and looked at some areas where we'd like to implement the study and think we have an area picked out. We're still working out the details right now."

He intends to design the study to look at effects of elk density on forage quantity and quality for livestock.

"That's our primary objective," Boren says.

He and Byron D. Wright, an ag specialist for wildlife with the Extension service, want to determine the level or density where elk negatively affect forage quality and availability for livestock and determine a relationship. It should be applicable to most of New Mexico, the two wildlife specialists agree.

In particular, they want to look at the pinion-juniper habitat that is not generally considered traditional habitat for Rocky Mountain elk. Traditionally, elk have stayed in the higher elevations. Ranchers now report elk moving into the plains were they compete for forage with livestock.

"Elk have increased in some places in the state of New Mexico to where they're expanding into this non-traditional elk habitat," Boren says, "and that's really not what we picture as true elk habitat."

"Historically, Merriam's elk did occur in some of these lower elevation habitats," Wright says, "but they became extinct at the turn of the century, so we really don't have any information about their relationship to other wild ungulates or livestock. While they do classify it as non-traditional habitat, it was in fact habitat for the Merriam's elk, but these dry habitats were certainly not the habitat for the Rocky Mountain subspecies, which is what has been introduced in the southern part of New Mexico and re-established in the northern parts of New Mexico. We historically did have two different subspecies of elk here."

A lot of the information is available in scientific literature from Montana, Colorado and areas with more moisture, but not for the drier climes of New Mexico.

"We really don't understand the relationships very well in the desert Southwest," Boren says.

Normally, higher elevations are considered elk habitat, Ponderosa-pinion-pine regions with interspersed savannas, as opposed to the more dry sagebrush communities.

A study conducted in one of the drier areas of Colorado found some interesting relationships with an increase in elk density.

"There were some helpful relationships," Boren says. "There was an increase in forage quality with elk grazing, which makes some sense. One of the reasons we oftentimes will graze livestock is that we can increase the crude protein content of grasses. But they also found that grazing by elk decreased forage availability, and they found that was more important than the increase in forage quality. The overall effect was a negative relationship. That's what we're wanting to look at here in New Mexico."

They plan to couple their study with new methods now being tried by the New Mexico Department of Game and Fish for determining trends in elk populations.

"Hopefully, we can couple that information with information from this project to give us a little bit better picture on what the impact might be," Boren says. "We're really concentrating on livestock-wildlife interaction."

While elk numbers appear to be increasing and the herds expanding, Boren and Wright hope to come up with some definitive answers based on qualitative assessments.

"We've seen more increase in depredation issues," Boren says. "We're seeing a lot more calls."

"People are seeing higher elk numbers in the places where they've always seen elk," Wright adds. "They're seeing larger number of elk, and they're seeing elk in places where they've never seen elk before, at least within the past 50 years or so. We get reports of people seeing elk in places that are really surprising."

"If you get an increase in population density, there's going to be a redistribution of those animals," Boren notes. "I think that's partly what we're seeing. They're expanding their range."

The old school of thought is that elk are grazers and deer are browsers, but recent studies by Dr. V.W. Howard, New Mexico State University professor of fish and wildlife sciences, show that a substantial portion of elk diet was browse in the area around Fort Bayard, an expanded non-traditional habitat, Boren says.

"In those areas where they've expanded into a non-traditional habitat for the Rocky Mountain subspecies of elk, they might be eating in certain conditions a lot more browse than what we thought, particularly if grass isn't available. I think there's a relationship there in some cases. I think it's all kind of intertwined."

These factors can be additive, Wright adds.

"We feel like there are some of these factors that contribute in a larger degree than some of the other factors," he says. "We don't know a lot about the elk and deer relationships in New Mexico in these drier habitats. We need to expand our knowledge in those areas, but we do believe and there is evidence to support that in some of these drier habitats there is a real potential for conflict for limited resources between elk and deer. We need some information in those areas."

Boren says they are getting an increased number of calls about elk, particularly in Northern New Mexico where there is a problem with elk getting into Timothy and alfalfa hay fields.

"That damage is not limited to a reduction of forage," Wright says. "Elk can cause a lot of fence damage as well. I've gotten a lot of calls on that."

But before any definitive action can be taken, some solid scientific data must be developed.

"We need to collect data on how many elk are out there, and also determine their impact on our natural resources."