Yellowstone elk herd numbers down 24 percent

By MATTHEW BROWN - Associated Press | Posted: Wednesday, January 12, 2011 8:03 pm

BILLINGS - Wildlife officials said Wednesday that an acclaimed elk herd in Yellowstone National Park dropped in size by 24 percent over the last year - as predators, hunters, recent drought and deep snows all took a toll.
As recently as 1994, the northern Yellowstone elk herd was the largest in North America with almost 20,000 animals that roamed between the park and Montana's Paradise Valley.
Figures released Wednesday show it is now down to a minimum of 4,635 elk. That compares with more than 6,000 last year. Park biologist Doug Smith said 2010's decline was unexpected because the herd had shown signs of stabilizing in recent years.
But he added that a smaller herd was more healthy, and that there was no reason to suspect its size will continue to plummet. Smith says deep snows also may have thrown off the count by leaving some elk uncounted if they moved into areas where they were more likely to be missed.
"Either we counted them poorly this year, predator effects were stronger, the big snow event made us miss more elk or more elk were harvested," he said. "Usually the best answer in ecology is all of the above."
The long-term decline in the herd began soon after gray wolves were reintroduced to the region in the 1990s.
Smith and other biologists say the herd was too large to begin with, forcing too many elk to compete for too little forage.
But some hunting advocates point to the decline as evidence wolves have been allowed to run amok in the region - eating their way through a herd that once supported a vibrant hunting-based economy in Yellowstone-area communities such as Gardiner.