Minding Your Elk Manners (or How to Behave in Elk Country - Banff National Park)
Just because you see them in town, on playing fields or feeding near the roadside, please don ‘t mistake these elk for tame animals. These wild animals do not have a tolerance of humans getting too close and will lash out with hooves or charge with antlers forward if disturbed.-
Always keep a safe distance away from wildlife. We recommend keeping 30 metres, or 3 bus lengths, away from elk for safety.
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If an elk becomes alert or nervous, grinds its teeth or sends its ears back, you're too close - back off.
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Use binoculars or a telephoto lens on your camera to get a closer look. Your vehicle is an ideal "blind" to take photographs from, but don't spend too much time taking pictures -- you could cause an "elk jam."
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Never approach or feed any park wildlife for their well-being as well as yours.
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Never come between a cow and her calf or between any group of elk -- period
- Don't intentionally feed the deer.
- Never, under any circumstance, approach a deer.
- Be especially cautious of deer with fawns. Mother deer are very protective of their young.
- Attacks by bucks are rare, but bucks may become aggressive in "rut" season - October through December.
- If you do see a deer, observe it from a distance, preferably from inside a structure or vehicle.
- Keep your pet inside when there is a deer in your yard.
2. Fencing
3. Deterrents/ Plants
4. Hazing
5. Relocation - Banff National Park in relocating the elk
Parks Canada and its partners moved quickly on the plan and undertook a series of intensive restoration activities from 1999 to 2003. Human activity was sharply reduced in wildlife corridors near the town of Banff. The presence of corridors meant that wolves and cougars returned to hunt in the lower Bow Valley, reestablishing the original predator-prey relationship. The number of elk was further reduced when park wardens captured 251 "town elk" (those who had become habituated to town life with humans), and relocated them outside the Bow Valley. Once these animals were moved, aversive conditioning began on the remainder of the herd to increase the wariness of elk toward humans and restore their migratory behaviour. In the final stage of the restoration project, a large prescribed burn was completed east of the town. Residents and businesses replanted many areas with natural vegetation.
Today, there are far fewer elk in the Bow Valley. Willows are thriving and trembling aspen is abundant in the area of the prescribed burn. Banff is returning to a more natural balance of plants, predators and prey.
6. Planting specific types of plants
7. Roadways / Over passes
Design helps animals and traffic co-exist
The winning design, from HNTB + MVVA of New York, reads more like natural feature than man-made bridge.
The challenge of keeping wildlife away from deadly collisions with cars inspired the ARC (for Animal Road Crossing) international design competition, which last year invited dozens of landscape architects from around the world to imagine animal-friendly, and eye-catching, bridges to cross over busy highways.
It's a pleasure to notice wildlife in our rear-view mirror when we travel past city limits and into the country. There's something picturesque and romantic about watching deer graze or elk lift their massive heads as we speed past. But when animals wander blindly onto highways, the results can be devastating. There's the sad, ugly loss of life, of course (mostly of wild animals, but occasionally of humans as well). But there’s also a more literal price tag. In the United States, the cost is estimated at $8-billion (U.S.) a year in insurance claims and car repairs. In Canada, damages are pegged at about $250-million annually, according to the Western Transportation Institute at Montana State University.
Wildlife crossings first appeared in Europe in the 1950s. Since the late seventies, Banff National Park has been at the vanguard of shepherding animals safely across vast territories. Scientist Tony Clevenger, one of the ARC competition jurors, has reported that the purpose-built crossings common in Banff have, over the past 25 years, allowed safe passage to some 240,000 large mammals, including elk, black and grizzly bears, deer, mountain lion, moose and coyote. Entire families of wild animals travel along the protective fencing and over the man-made structures; young animals learn how to reset their migratory patterns accordingly within three years of birth.
The problem in Banff – both in terms of cost and aesthetics – is that the crossings are overengineered and overbuilt. “They’re strong enough to carry the load of five super dumpsters, not three elk and a moose,” says Toronto ecologist and planner Nina-Marie Lister, the ARC competition’s professional adviser and an associate professor at Ryerson University. Elsewhere at Banff, there are rudimentary metal culverts or prefabricated concrete boxes inserted underneath roads. They are narrow and dark; elegance and lightness of design never played a role.
The ARC finalists, short-listed from 36 submissions from nine countries, are invitations for animals to weave their way over a landscape located 150 kilometres west of Denver and next to massive ski chalets and high-profile resorts. Why similarly inventive bridges haven’t been built in Canada “is a mystery” says Lister. “We know that they work, we know that there’s a need for them. We also know that the cost of not having them is incredibly high, and it’s compounded year after year.”
OR JUST USE COMMON SENSE WHEN YOU DRIVE - SLOW DOWN AND LOOK AROUND
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