I recently had the good fortune of getting a good look at four bull elk in the Turtle Mountains while cross country skiing. When one thinks of elk in North Dakota the badlands and Theodore Roosevelt National Park may come to mind. I suspect that few among us are unaware that the Turtle Mountains supports a sizeable elk population.
Historically elk ranged over most of the state. Their abundance in the 1800’s has been well documented through the journals of several early traders and explorers. Alexander Henry for example noted that along the Red River during the fall of 1800 “large herds were seen at every turn of the river.” Lewis and Clark observed them frequently as they traveled the Missouri River in 1804-1806. John James Audubon, Prince Maximillian of Weid, and even Theodore Roosevelt wrote about the abundance of elk in the western portions of North Dakota. But as European settlement commenced their populations dropped considerably, so by the late 1800s they were becoming rare, and by the early 1900s they were on the verge of extirpation.
But of course, that has changed considerably. Robert Seabloom notes in his Mammals of North Dakota (2011) that three populations now exist in the state. Elk arrived in the Pembina Hills in the 1970s, probably from adjacent Manitoba. A population in the Badlands and Killdeer Mountain areas can be traced back to the 1970s and is assumed to have been established by escaped animals from the Fort Berthold Indian Reservation. And of course, Theodore Roosevelt National Park supports an elk population which was established in the 1980s by introductions from Wind Cave National Park in South Dakota.
The Turtle Mountains can now be added to the list. The population here may have been established back in the 1940s by a few elk that escaped from an introduction or introductions in the Killdeer Mountains. This population has been recently estimated to be somewhere around 400-500 animals and perhaps even much larger because about one half of the Turtle Mountains are in Manitoba.
Today the state supports huntable populations of elk. A quick review of the North Dakota Game and Fish Departments 2018 elk hunting statistics showed six hunting units for elk with 404 licenses available, 40 of which were for the hunting unit that is basically the Turtle Mountains.
The future looks bright for the elk in North Dakota. So, as you travel about, be on the lookout for them. You never know when a few of these magnificent animals will make their presence known.
~Chuck Lura
