And unlike this guy (who has degree in botany from the Uni of Wisconsin), I can’t wait until they return to West Virginia. I have read a ton of historical records of elk in West Virginia. From what I understand, they were once more common than white-tailed deer.
Please note that I’m not talking about what Europeans call an elk.
We call that elk a moose.
The animal we call an elk is very similar to the red deer of Europe. It was once considered the same species as the red deer (Cervus elaphus), but it is now considered its own separate species (Cervus canadensis).
An alternative name for them is waipiti, and they once ranged throughout North America.
They are also found in Eastern and Central Asia, but if they are considered to be the same species as red deer, which they likely aren’t, they would be the most-widely ranging species of deer.
But since they aren’t the same species, that title goes to the other elk– the moose.
The Tule Elk preserve in Owens valley isn’t that far from where I live and is one of the success stories of preservation. Unfortunately, the existance of CWD — Chronic Wasting Disease (CWD in the Rocky Mountain elk is a major problem for that subspecies. CWD is pretty much the deer version mad cow disease in cattle (Bovine spongiform encephalopathy ) and scrapie in sheep.
Peggy Richter
I remember seeing a herd of Elk when I was fishing as a kid on the Owens river. First time I ever saw any and I was amazed at how big they were.
We used to visit the WV Wildlife Center in French Creek every summer.
And I remember seeing one antlered bull and being held up by my dad to the fence and saying to the bull, “You wanna buck fight?”
if U want them in W-Va, **Please make SURE** there is legislation requiring that every animal be TESTED and quarantined before release.
Chronic-Wasting Disease was introduced by a biologi…
no, an EEJIT, who was studying white-tail deer; these were wild deer, penned BESIDE known-positive sheep with scrapie.
after his studies were finished, HE TURNED THEM LOOSE.
prion-diseases are readily transferred via direct contact; ungulates LICK NOSES when they interact, frequently; the nasal + mouth contact is highly efficacious in transfer.
eating prions works just as well –
MAD COW *aka* variant-Kreutzfeld-Jacob in humans, is a prion disease; COWS were fed -diseased sheep- as a protein source; that’s how scrapie moved from sheep to cattle.
the New-Guinea cannibals who ate their dead loved-one’s brains? got a prion disease.
courtesy of the researcher –
http://tinyurl.com/2cpfu2j
we now have a prion-disease in the USA, which last i heard, had moved from ONE state to 12 – all via captive-reared elk, shipped across state-lines.
the level of contagion in some captive-herds is 30%; because so many die sooner, contagion in wild stock is 10 to 15%.
this is a disease which cannot be eradicated, and because PRIONS are indestructible, they are now in the soil; any state currently home to CWD will have it forever, as it is held by the clay in the soil, taken-up by plants, and ingested by grazing.
see this press-release –
http://tinyurl.com/yfn6qbz
note the side-column re transmission among rodents –
this means a mouse could infect a cat or dog, if eaten.
on SPREAD – March-2010
http://tinyurl.com/23y773z
excerpt, QUOTE
——————
[Although Kansas regulations seem to want the entire carcass intake, most hunters remove the guts from their animals before transporting the carcasses. Hence, the carcass, aside from the central nervous system (brain and spinal cord) is not as likely to be the cause of the spread of CWD. However, the gut piles are a different matter.
It was presented at the Unites States Animal Health Association in 2008, and as yet unpublished,
documenting how other deer consume the parts
of the gut piles, thus becoming infected. This same presentation also documented how crows pick through
the gut piles, and move the prion agent on their feet
as well as potentially on the feathers or in their own
GI system. Other wild animals may transport the prion
agent in a similar manner as deer and crows.
– Mod.TG]
———————
with the Penna deer-herd constantly well-over carrying capacity of the environs, CWD in Pa would be devastating; the number of carcasses would rapidly overwhelm the state’s ability to even find them, let alone remove them, in a timely manner to limit the spread.
*madame gaza* looking into her crystal-ball,
and not seeing happy scenes unless we act…
decisively,
— terry
terry pride, APDT-Aus, apdt#1827, CVA, TDF
We already have CWD in Hampshire County, WV.
So we do want them tested for it if they were to ever come back.
@#$&! sorry to hear that –
i did not know of it in WV, bummer.
Are there other hoofed browsers/grazer, that are immune, that could be inported?
I learned to read with “If I ran the Zoo” by Dr. Suess. Boosts creativity, but tosses conservatism out the backdoor.
Have you been to the West Virginia Farm Museum? There’s a taxidermy exhibit there that has the last elk shot in WV. It’s worth checking out if you’re near by, it was pretty interesting.
I went there a long time ago. I was in seventh grade.
It’s in Mothman country.
And the “First Battle of the Revolution” place– Pt. Pleasant.
Did you see the big taxidermied Belgian horse?
Yeah, I’m not going to lie. I totally was in that area for Mothman. Hillbilly Hotdogs was pretty awesome too.
My first golden came from that area, at a place called New Haven.
There was concern over the chronic wasting disease in the release program of elk in the Great Smokies National Park on the N. C. /Tennessee border–some were against it for this reason. But they went ahead(for which I am very glad), and the elk have done extremely well. Future plans for the species even allow for them to naturally populate the surrounding national forests where hunting would eventually be allowed again. These elk are very accessible and visible to visitors in the park, in the Cataloochee valley area(though they range widely throughout the park now). It is super having elk back in those mountains, after over 200 years of their abscence! And you should certainly have elk in West Virginia again one day(throughout all the Appalachians, hopefully!), especially since that was originally Shawnee territory, who gave their name to our elk(as you mentioned) “Wapiti”(meaning “white rump”)……