Overview
The Manitoban elk tends to be darker overall in color than other North American elk, with long tines and excellent mass of antlers.
Taxonomy
- Kingdom
- Animalia
- Phylum
- Chordata
- Class
- Mammal
- Order
- Artiodactyla
- Family
- Cervidae
- Genus
- Cervus
- Species
- Cervus canadensis
Habitat
Distribution- Native to the Duck mountain region of Manitoba.
Diet
These animals both graze and browse in the Manitoban forests, based on seasonal availability of food sources.
Behavior
Elk are highly adaptive herd animals that thrive in forest habitats. Elk will feed in both the morning and then hide out in dark timber to digest their food, conserve energy and remain cool during the heat of the day. During the summer months, elk will go high into mountains to take advantage of cooler temperatures. In the winter, they will migrate to lower elevations for shelter from bad weather and for more available food sources. The breeding season begins in early fall, when bulls will separate from each other and start seeking out suitable cows to join their harem. A harem is a bull’s group of suitable cows that he will travel and eventually mate with. Harems can eventually include up to 20 cows during a mating season. To attract cows, bulls will dig out watery marsh-like holes, lay in them and urinate in them. These stinky, murky mud baths are called wallows. The reason bull elk use wallows is to coat themselves with their own sexually pungent odor. By coating themselves in this manner, sexually willing cows can find them from a great distance with their noses. Once a bull has cows in his harem he is very protective of them and will fend off other bulls.
Hunting
Hunting of this subspecies is only available to residents.
Conservation Status
Elk as an entire species are listed as Least Concern by IUCN. Manitoban elk are considered to have stable and sustainable populations.