Changes In Pennsylvania Elk Management Policy: Part I

Mature Bull On Winslow Hill 2005: Viewed by thousands of elk watchers,
he was killed in Hunt Zone 2 on the first day of the November elk season.

In Pennsylvania, the hunting license year runs from the first of July to the end of the following June, so in most cases seasons are finalized by this time and one has a relatively clear picture of what is planned for the coming year.

The Elk regulations, and allocations are now published in the 2009 Pennsylvania Hunting And Trapping Digest, which is received when one purchases a license or may be viewed and downloaded from the Agency's website.

There are significant changes in this years' elk season. One addressed an issue, which was discussed in depth in "The Truth About Pennsylvania's Elk Herd" a 2 hr.-42 min. film, which discussed the recent history of Pennsylvania's Elk Herd along with giving the viewer a close-up view of the life cycle of the elk. The film closed with a section detailing many of the problems facing the herd today.

It was initially stated that hunting pressure would be directed at areas of elk-human conflict and away from the tourist areas on Winslow Hill.

Hunters were required to hunt in the management unit for which they drew tags and the number of tags issued per unit was fairly conservative, but management plans were disregarded when hunters who had difficulty locating elk in their assigned hunting area, were permitted to hunt in other management zones.

No Hunt Zone Denoted In Red
Note: Hand Generated Maps illustrate the general situation and are not accurate as to scale or small details of terrain and boundary lines.

The official Game Commission Harvest map that year shows that much of the kill, tightly encircled the No Hunt Zone.

2001 Elk Harvest Map-Source: The Pennsylvania Game Commission
Media Resource Center

This situation was bad enough, but the real blow fell in 2005 when hunt zones 1,2,3, and 10 were combined. While they were still listed as separate physical entities, the tags were issued with the stipulation that the hunter could utilize any of the four hunt zones. As a result, anyone who held a tag for any of the four combined hunt zones was able to hunt in Zone 2. In addition one had to consider the elk that were killed in Hunt Zone 8, as it too was home to many of the large bulls that visited the viewing areas on Winslow Hill.

2005 Elk Hunt Zones

In the 2008 season it was possible that 7 bulls and 16 cows could be killed in the combined Hunt Zones 1,2,3,10. In addition Hunt Zones 7 and 8 were combined with 5 bull and 7 antlerless tags being issued. This meant in theory that 12 bulls and 23 cows could be killed close to the No Hunt Zone. It is not likely that this actually happened and the kill was somewhat more dispersed, but the problem was that it did permit elk hunters to target many of the large bulls that frequented the viewing areas.

During the rut, bulls may travel long distances to visit the traditional mating grounds on Winslow Hill and then spend the rest of the year in other areas, but a substantial number do remain nearby. The film covers this aspect by showing several examples of large bulls that were acclimated to humans and would not have been killed had there been a somewhat larger no hunt zone.

According to the 2009-2010 Hunting Regulations, the combined areas have been eliminated so that 2 bulls and 7 antlerless elk may be taken in Hunt Zone 2, and 2 bulls and 6 antlerless elk may be taken in Hunt Zone 8.

A Portion Of Elk Hunt Zone 2

While this does not preserve as high of a proportion of mature bulls as the plan presented in "The Truth About Pennsylvania's Elk Herd", which advocated an enlarged No Hunt, or Population Control Hunt Only Zone, it is a great improvement over the combined zones. In brief instead of 12 bulls being possible targets in Zones 2 and 8, now a maximum of four will be targeted creating the potential for as many as 8 more bulls to survive near the major elk viewing areas.

Young Bull Elk Hunt Zone 2

Did "The Truth About Pennsylvania's Elk Herd" influence this decision? I don't know, but if it did, it makes the effort all worthwhile.

In spite of this positive action, there are still issues that need addressed, which I hope to cover in the future.

Camera Critters: Close And Personal With A Whitetail Fawn

On June 15th, I posted a close-up of a fawn before I left for a trip to Elk County. At that time I promised to give more details about this, but then of course photos from the Elk County trip were fresh on my mind and I have not told the story of the fawn. It seems that I am getting very good at promising more photos and information, about a subject and then moving on without addressing it in more detail.

I noticed that my favorite whitetail doe was still extremely pregnant when she visited the food plot on Saturday Morning June 13th. As I drove in the lane that evening I saw her go around the corner of an old house foundation in a "sneaking run". As she usually stands alert watching me arrive, or approaches the vehicle, I was almost certain that the long expected event had occurred.

I got on watch by the food plot and soon she arrived. Yes, her flanks were now sunken, indicating that she had given birth.

Sunken flanks: Abdomen still looks enlarged, but that is from stretching

I realized that the fawn was probably near the old house foundation so I took the camcorder on the tripod and the 30-D with 70-200mm 2.8 lens and went in search of it. I ordinarily would not recommend this course of action, but this is a very unique situation. These deer are completely acclimated to me and were not frightened by any of what is described here. In fact this particular doe will often fall in with me when I am walking in the area and follow to the side or slightly behind me. In this instance she soon followed me, a short distance behind, stopping to browse.


I stood still for a time when I reached the foundation and then was distracted by two bucks passing by and photographed them. When I looked back the doe was gone, but soon I noticed her walking a roadway some distance away. I followed at quite a distance. Soon she went into the woods and then doubled back toward the foundation. I slowly retraced my steps and started in the lane on foot. The doe walked into the lane and then looked back into the woodland. I positioned the video camera and began filming. Then the moment I had been waiting for arrived-the fawn stepped from the bushes, and the doe began grooming and nursing it.

I See The Fawn At Last

I decided to drop the tripod as low to the ground as possible to get a different perspective and suddenly the fawn spied me and began staggering toward me. A tripod was too unwieldy for this, so I dismounted the camcorder from it and engaged the image stabilization. Suddenly the fawn was under the tripod and then it was nuzzling my knee. At one point in time I rested the rear of the camcorder on the ground and fired up at the fawn with the lens on extreme wide angle. At times I placed the camcorder of the ground and took stills with the 17-40mm, but the light was so low that it was difficult to get sharp photos.

This Is Close: probably 2-3'

At one point the young animal even sniffed the camcorders' microphone.

The Young Are Inquisitive

In time the fawn rejoined the doe and they went into the nearby woodland where they interacted for quite some time, before it bedded down in a thicket.

Fawn In Woods

Hiding From Predators

It is likely that this doe has two fawns, but only time will tell. The fawns should start traveling with the doe during July and then one gets a better handle as to what actually occurred during the past birthing season.

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"Fred-"Bull 36: Some Thoughts On Wildlife Photography

It seems that one is always looking for that super, award winning shot and may be disappointed with a day afield if such an opportunity does not present itself. I know I am always looking for such photographs and video footage, yet if we concentrate on that to too great of a degree we may miss a certain type of shot that is valuable in its' own way.

Elk In "Natural" Setting: actually part of a reclaimed area

I seldom used to photograph or film the elk in town, except when I wanted footage documenting that situation. I have come to photograph these animals more and more as I find that it documents a different aspect of Pennsylvania's Elk Range, and the town of Benezette in particular. While I ordinarily think of foot trips in the backcountry when visualizing elk photography, this is not what most tourists do. The photographs featured today are actually more representative of what they may encounter-along with roadside encounters on Winslow Hill Road and Route 555.

Low Light Levels and a lot of distracting objects usually define this type of photography. All of the photographs featured today(except for the elk in bright sunlight by the pond) were taken at ISO 1600 with the 70-200mm f2.8 IS,. The highest shutter speed used was 1/60 and the lowest was 1/15. As much as I firmly believe in tripods, I do not usually set one up in town, as I do not wish to create a spectacle, or impede traffic. These were shot out of the vehicle window, resting the rig on the windowsill.

Fred is of course the famous Benezette town bull that I have featured in many posts before. He is a favorite of many Pennsylvania elk watchers and many travel to the area to check on "Freddie".

Fred: 1/15 f2.8

Sometimes it works well to shoot the animal as one finds it, but trying different angles may result in being able to isolate it against a pleasing backdrop. (I am not too fond of the position of the elk in the shot below, but I do like the rustic building as a background)

Fred: 1/15 f2.8

Sometimes the animals are positioned so that one may take a photograph that looks as though it were taken in the wilderness. There were buildings on both sides and objects in front of the animal below, but I was able to get a natural looking portrait by zooming in to 185mm.

Unknown Bull In Town: 1/60 f3.2

Photographers should remember to respect private property and not walk in lawns, or block traffic.

Camera Critters: The Calf Elk Are Born

As mentioned in the last few posts, this is the time of year when the young elk and whitetail deer are born, so I traveled to Pennsylvania's elk range this past week to photograph the young elk, known as calves. Some of the cows were still pregnant, but many had given birth. Several calves were sighted, but they were often too far away for still photography. I arrived in time for the evening's photography on Monday. There were beautiful weather conditions that evening and the following morning, but by Tuesday evening the clouds were thickening and rain was in the forecast. There was intermittent rain during the rest of the week and lighting conditions were less than ideal for still photography, but that being said, I still had some excellent encounters.


In a few cases, calves were found standing by the roadside. There was actually a herd of cows with four calves in this encounter where I used the 70-200mm at 200mm and ISO 640 to capture a portrait of the young animal.

Calf By The Roadside

The best encounter was when I saw well-known local videographer, Tom Murphy standing on the river bridge behind Benezette store pointing his camcorder at something in the grass beside the bridge. It turned out to be a beautiful calf. Its' mother was nearby and periodically ran other elk away from the area where the calf was resting. This too was difficult lighting conditions and I used ISO 400 to get a shutter speed of 1/80 at f4.5.

Calf At Benezette River Bridge

It is always a welcome treat to encounter bulls and I had several encounters. Perhaps the best was early Wednesday morning, when I found two bulls grazing in a meadow by Winslow Hill Road.

Grazing

Neither of these animals were mature bulls, but the largest will have a very respectable rack once growth is completed.

Curious

The elk on Winslow Hill are wild to the extent that they are free ranging and go wherever they please, but they have an extremely high tolerance of humans. At this time of year the cows may be very shy at times as they are extremely concerned about any threat to the young, but they become very trusting later in the summer.

It must be emphasized that one should not approach a young calf, not only to not frighten it, but for your safety as while. While ordinarily very docile, the cows may become extremely aggressive when protecting their young and may attack the intruder.

For more Camera Critters photos, click Here!