Last winter, Fish and Game received a grant from the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation and initiated a project tracking elk movements in the southern Weiser River and Brownlee elk management zones. The goal is to better understand elk distribution, seasonal range use, and migration patterns to determine if there are ways to provide more targeted hunting opportunity to address chronic depredation complaints.
Biologists used a combination of helicopter and ground capture to put GPS collars 18 elk on seven different landowners’ properties. The collars are programmed to collect two locations per day and can last for up to eight years. To date, there have been three mortalities, one that was capture related, and two legally harvested.
This first year of data shows elk movements are relatively localized. The collared cows don't leave hunting units 31 and 32, and biologists are not seeing long distance migrations between winter and summer ranges that are typical for some elk populations in the state.
Capture and monitoring efforts are ongoing and Fish and Game personnel plan to put out eight additional collars this winter.