
This was a very good question brought up by a reader of the prior post. As it turns out, deer and elk move between summer and winter ranges. The winter range is at a lower elevation where there are more resources such as shrubs and grasses. Since they eat similar foods, they often compete for resources during the winter when they are more scarce. Since elk are larger and more aggressive, they often win these competitions. According to an article from the University of Idaho, elk are also more tolerant of the cold, can traverse through deeper snow, and use less energy than deer.
Source:
University of Idaho
- Log in to post comments
More like this
Minnesota has two populations of moose, one in the northwestern part of the state, one in the northeastern part of the state. Both are in decline. The decline seems to be mainly due to disease, which in turn, seems to be exacerbated by the occurrence of shorter, warmer winters and longer summers…
Because the situation is alarming.
There is still a great deal of uncertainty about where the melted-down fuel at Fukushima I's reactors is resting. TEPCO and various NPA's have insisted all along that they know where it is, and everything is under control. The most recent information from TEPCO…
The skeleton of the Hundsheim rhinoceros, Stephanorhinus hundsheimensis. From Kahlke and Kaiser, 2010.
In any given environment, it might be expected that a generalized or unspecialized species might be less prone to extinction than one which depends upon a narrow temperature range, a peculiar…
Once You've Got the Chickens, You'll Hardly Notice the Yaks: Re-Inventing the Diversified Small Farm
Over at ye olde blogge, on one of my Independence Days updates, a reader commented on something that I'd posted. I'd mentioned that we are having trouble with goat parasites - most specifically, meningeal worm. Meningeal worm is a parasite is hosted by snails and transmitted by the feces of white…
So incredibly beautiful and magnificent. I long for a world where they and others like them are gazed upon with wondering eyes versus hunted and villified. "A nation is judged by how its animals as re treated". Mahatma Gandhi