Yellowstone Elk Wildlife Graphic Hoodie

Yellowstone National Park Elk Behavioral Habits and Habitat

Leaves, berries, mushrooms, most vegetation is in the diet of elk, making them Herbivores. Elk are on the diet of wolves, bears, coyotes, a road kill meal for raptors such as Golden Eagles and Hawks. Elk have a significant impact on the environment from spreading seeds, controlling invasive weeds, but at the same time cause massive damage to riparian zones and prairie grasslands with over grazing.

Rocky Mountain Elk make their home in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem and far beyond those boundaries.  Social they are, elk are very social , travel and live in herds with a lead cow.

Seasons are the habits of an elk’s life, wintering in the lower elevations out of the harshest climate of winter the mountains. Spring calves are born in the meadows grasses as the elk migrate back up the mountains of Summer. Fall comes the rut, my favorite time of year.  Listening to bugling bull elk in the mornings and evening rounding up the harem.  As the bull elk are rounding up a harem they are sparing with other bulls to keep the harem and the rights to mate with the harem. 

Eight and half month is the gestation period of calf elk. Spring is when calf elk are born late May to Early June typically. Elk calves weigh in between thirty and forty pounds at birth.