“The elk are finally here and doing very well at their new home,” Mike Solomon said last Thursday about the arrival of 48 elk to Cameron Lake earlier in the week.
“The elk have all adjusted quite well to their new surroundings and they appear to have settled in,” he added.
Solomon, along with Mike Dawe of Kenora, Vic Alberts of Devlin, and Daryl Gaudry of Atikokan, made the trip to Elk Island National Park in Alberta to pick up the elk and then transport them to their new home.
“These guys have been just great,” enthused Solomon, co-chair of the Northwestern Ontario Elk Restoration Coalition. “To give up so much of their time to help us out is really something.”
Although the trip was long, Solomon and his fellow drivers were quite pleased with how well their journey went–despite some initial concerns.
“We were hoping to have good weather and not run into anything too bad,” he remarked. “The highways were all very clear and it was very good driving.
“We took three to four-hour shifts just to give everyone a break. We did stop a few times along the way to take a much-needed coffee break.
“While we were stopped, we checked the animals and they all seemed to be doing okay. Overall, the drive went very well and we are all quite pleased about it,” Solomon added.
With the elk safe in their new home, Solomon does not expect it will take too long before they will be released from the pen to join the current herd in the area.
“They are going to be monitored from Kenora for about two weeks before they are released,” he noted. “We have a vet who will be there to make sure that the elk are healthy and are settling in.
“Once that is determined, they will be released. Basically, we will open the gates and let them go.”
The 48 elk are in addition to 60 released in the same area last year, NOERC said in a press release.
Of the 60 original animals, there has been eight to 10 mortalities, which is a little better than what is normally to be expected during these types of projects, it added.
Most of the elk from the initial release are still within 15 km of the pen release site and appear to have adjusted well to their new home, NOERC said.
Only two or three calves appear to have been produced this past spring and while this is a smaller number than had been hoped for, it is not unusual for poor reproduction to occur in the spring immediately following a translocation.
Now that the cow elk have been here more than a year, calf production is expected to be better this spring, NOERC said.
This year, more than 90 percent of the elk have been fitted with radio collars so their movement patterns can be tracked. Las year, about half of the animals had collars.
Meanwhile, Tracie Macintosh, a university student working on a Masters of Science degree in biology, will be studying the habits of the elk and doing most of the tracking, as well as chronicling any incidences of diseases and parasites among elk, deer, and moose in the area.
“There is a great deal of enthusiasm and support for the elk restoration program in our area of the province,” said NOERC co-chair Murray English.
“The elk restoration effort is receiving cash donations, in-kind contributions and volunteer support from many groups and individuals from across Northwestern Ontario, including Atikokan, Ignace, Dryden, Vermilion Bay, Kenora, and Fort Frances.”
Fort Frances Times
Local News from Across the Rainy River District
