Elk Choice: Have Dinner Or Be Dinner? Student Thinks Wolves Make Elk Too Tense To Enjoy Meal

An Idaho State University graduate student is researching whether Yellowstone Park elk that are forced to keep an eye out for wolves are thrown off their feed and lose an edge in survival.

Biology student Kelly Altendorf spent six weeks in the park this summer observing herds and ascertaining if the mere presence of wolves could reduce the time elk spend feeding.

The first year of the three- to four-year study was funded by the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation, which has about 5,100 Idaho members and about 102,000 nationwide.

Wolf reintroduction in Yellowstone provides an ideal situation to test the theory, since elk have not known wolves for 50 years, she said.

The obvious fact is that wolves kill elk.

The theory is that the prey population will dwindle because of poorer nutrition, and weaker offspring.

And these subtle, “non-lethal” interactions with wolves may do more long-term damage to elk populations, Altendorf said.

She observed about 200 elk last summer in areas where wolves were recently reintroduced. She also studied the spots the packs have not claimed as territory.

Altendorf watched one foraging elk at a time for one hour. She counted how long it spent eating and how long it raised its head.

“The preliminary data did show at least among cow elk, that in areas where wolves have not been reintroduced the elk did spend more time feeding,” Altendorf said.

Carl Nellis, a big-game biologist and regional supervisor for the Idaho Department of Fish and Game, said the theory seems interesting but lacks a critical component: pre-wolf data.

“If they don’t have pre-wolf data, how will they know what wolves have done and what does it all mean?” Nellis asked.

“An elk doesn’t spend its whole day feeding,” he said. “In a good foraging situation a couple of hours per day is enough to keep an elk’s belly full.”

While there are cases where predators control prey populations, variables such as weather, food, water and forest health also shift the equation.

“It’s my guess that elk will be healthier with wolves than without,” Nellis said. “There may be somewhat fewer elk but my guess is that wolves will have a positive effect on the elk that remain, rather than a negative one.”

Tom Roman, conservation programs manager for the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation, said his group takes no stance on wolf reintroduction, but its members are interested in the effect of predators on the herds.