Diet and Impact On Native Grasslands
Two male and eight female elk were translocated from Merced County, California to Tomales Point on Point Reyes National Seashore in March, 1978. The elk showed signs of nutritional stress including copper deficiency and antler anomalies by summer 1979 and two elk died. Possible explanations include failure to remove cattle until 1979 and the fact that 1977 and 1978 were drought years. Birth rates remained negligible until 1981, when they began reproducing at predicted maximum rates. Studies of fecal material documented that the tule elk preferred grasses and forbs with little use of shrubs such as willow. These results are consistent with findings on the Diablo Range, Santa Clara County elk herd where more than 50% of the tule elk diet were grasses.
A more recent study at the Tomales Point Elk Reserve showed that tule elk appear to play a critical role in preventing succession of open grasslands to less diverse, shrub-dominated ecosystems. Also elk grazing had a positive impact on native grassland species abundance and diversity but also seemed to increase the richness and abundance of some exotic taxa while reducing Holcus lanatus a highly invasive exotic grass which is a major problem in mesic perennial grasslands.
Read more about this topic: Tule Elk
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