The Effect of Snow on the Migration of Elk in the Fall

Last Sunday's Steamboat Pilot has an article on the "average" harvest of elk during the 2nd Rifle season, as well and tidbits about the impact on the butcher and taxidermy businesses in Routt county. The part of the article that had me nodding my head up and down repeatedly was the part that said how the early snows pushed the elk down off the divide and west toward their winter range sooner than usual. Apparently the elk didn't move down soon enough last year and many died from starvation, so this year the elk moved sooner to avoid the same fate.

I don't believe that the elk have a memory from one year to the next, but stranger things have happened. I do believe that the repeated snow storms that rolled through the Steamboat area did move the elk down earlier than usual. Lesson learned, enough said. Hunt on!