Suburban elk study underway in Spokane County

What do you do when a growing human population runs headlong into a growing elk population?

If you're WDFW's urban wildlife biologist Howard Ferguson, you set out to learn more about the elk so you can come up with solutions to people-elk problems.

Earlier this year Howard initiated a study of the resident (non-migrating) elk population in southern Spokane County, where the rural landscape has shifted in recent years to suburbia and where apparently increasing numbers of elk are damaging everything from fences to roses and posing road collision hazards.

The first step was to equip a sample of the elk with radio telemetry collars so they could be tracked to determine more about their numbers, habitat usage, home range, travel patterns and corridors used across the county, and other information. That meant capturing elk, which Howard learned was not an easy task after a month-long attempt to bait them with alfalfa into a trap failed.

"Plan B" used a helicopter crew to capture elk using nets shot from a gun, then ground crews to handle the tangled animals and fit them with radio collars. Ground crews of WDFW staff, Inland Northwest Wildlife Council volunteers, and Eastern Washington University wildlife biology students equipped 19 elk with radios in just a few days.

Within the first week of the study, monitoring showed that one elk was lost to a poacher. The other 18 elk have continued to be tracked regularly throughout the county. One of the more surprising movements was a 40-mile excursion by a cow elk just before the calving period in late May.

Howard hopes to equip at least five more elk with radios early next year to expand and continue the study. One of the many things he hopes to learn is where and when how many elk cross State Highway 195, which runs north-south and bisects the county. With apparently increasing incidents of elk-vehicle collisions, and state transportation officials beginning to plan improvements on that route, the information could help determine if wildlife underpass, overpass, warning signs or other steps are needed.

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