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First elk born in national park
Elk Calf Great Smoky Mountains National Park officials have announced the birth of a 40-pound male elk calf, the first to be born in the Smokies in more than 150 years and the first to be delivered by the eight pregnant cow elk in the herd.

The calf was evidently born Friday, June 22, but was not located until Sunday evening hidden in a blackberry thicket close to the meadows in Cataloochee Valley.

A University of Tennessee graduate student conduct on-site monitoring of the experimental elk release project began searching for the newborn after being alerted on Friday by ejection of transmitter implant from the female cow. All the pregnant female elk were implanted with transmitters in the birth canal to help biologists know when the calves were born.

Biologists believed earlier that nine of the 12 females in the herd were pregnant, but learned later that there are only eight pregnant cows.

Saturday morning the researchers, using telemetry devices, located the implant transmitter and the apparent site of the delivery, but it took another day and a half of searching to locate the calf. The calf was found about one-third of a mile from the site of the delivery.

Cow elk typically move their newborn calves some distance from the site of delivery as a survival mechanism, according to Park Wildlife Biologist Kim Delozier.

"Elk calves are most vulnerable to predators in the first few days after birth," Delozier said. "The mothers will distance them from the birthing site, which could attract predators."

Biologists placed an expandable radio collar on the new calf to help them learn about the survival rate in the wild, an important part of the five-year experimental project.

The animals in the Smokies experiment all came from a wild herd at Land between the Lakes in Kentucky where they have not been exposed to bears or other potential predators.

"We are pleased with this announcement and the success of the elk experiment to date," Great Smoky Mountains National Park Superintendent Michael Tollefson said. "We ask that the public be good stewards and not to approach the elk, particularly female elk with calves which are known to charge people in defense of their offspring."

Back to Archive: 06/28/01.