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19-513: Willapa National Wildlife Refuge preserves many unique ecosystems including salt marshes, muddy tideflats, rain drenched old growth forests, and coastal dunes and beaches. Freshwater marshes and grasslands are found along the southern shore of Willapa Bay. Visitors to the Willapa National Wildlife Refuge can enjoy viewing a wide variety of wildlife. Roosevelt elk , black bear , shorebirds, and spawning salmon are just

38-478: A few of the many species that reside on the Refuge. The refuge is home to several endangered and threatened species including the snowy plover , marbled murrelets , and brown pelican . Other birds that are commonly spotted throughout the refuge include bald eagles , great blue herons , peregrine falcons , red-tailed hawks , marsh wrens , and golden-crowned kinglets . Willapa National Wildlife Refuge deals with

57-474: A number of unique challenges. While it contains many pristine areas, it also includes many recent acquisitions where considerable restoration efforts are needed. It includes a vast diversity of habitats from ocean sand dune beaches to the sheltered mudflats of the bay, from pristine old growth forests to open saltgrass meadows. The refuge is home to several threatened and endangered species and is trying to restore habitat for many others. Like many places, Willapa NWR

76-603: A population in Kentucky. In 2018, elk from Arizona were transported to West Virginia to help with reestablishing the population there. Unfortunately, a parasite, brainworm , has killed off some of the herd. In 1990, feasibility studies were conducted to determine if wild, free-ranging elk still had a place in some of their former eastern habitats. Once this was complete, healthy source herds of Rocky Mountain elk from Arizona , Kansas , New Mexico , North Dakota , Oregon , and Utah were used to introduce this elk subspecies to

95-724: Is also coping with the threat of invasive species. The refuge received a $ 1.3 million apportionment from the Migratory Bird Conservation Commission in 2023 to purchase 239 acres (97 ha) focused towards the additional access to recreation and wildlife viewing. [REDACTED]  This article incorporates public domain material from websites or documents of the United States Fish and Wildlife Service . Roosevelt elk Cervus elaphus roosevelti The Roosevelt elk ( Cervus canadensis roosevelti ) , also known commonly as

114-616: Is also known to eat ferns , blueberries , mushrooms , lichens , and salmonberries . In the wild, the Roosevelt elk rarely lives beyond 12 to 15 years, but in captivity it has been known to live over 25 years. In 2018, the New York State Zoo had a Roosevelt elk named Rosie die in August of that year at the age of 26, which means it was one of the oldest at that time. This elk subspecies, Cervus canadensis roosevelti ,

133-468: Is mainly attributed to human encroachment and destruction of their natural habitats and migratory corridors. A year later, twenty-one elk from Jackson Hole, Wyoming were reintroduced to South Dakota 's Wind Cave National Park for population increase. Conservation efforts also brought the elk populations in New Mexico from near-zero numbers in the late 1800s and early 1900s, to healthy populations in

152-809: The Olympic elk and Roosevelt's wapiti , is the largest of the four surviving subspecies of elk ( Cervus canadensis ) in North America by body mass. Mature bulls weigh from 700 to 1,200 lb (320 to 540 kg). with very rare large bulls weighing more. Its geographic range includes temperate rainforests of the Pacific Northwest including parts of northern California. It was introduced to Alaska 's Afognak , Kodiak , and Raspberry Islands in 1928 and reintroduced to British Columbia 's Sunshine Coast from Vancouver Island in 1986. In December 1897, mammalogist C. Hart Merriam named

171-551: The withers . Roosevelt elk bulls generally weigh between 700 and 1,100 pounds (320 and 500 kg), while cows weigh 575–625 lb (261–283 kg). Some mature bulls from Raspberry Island in Alaska have weighed nearly 1,300 lb (590 kg). Although the largest elk subspecies by body mass, by antler size both the Boone and Crockett (rifle) and Pope and Young (bow) records have Rocky Mountain elk being larger; none of

190-681: The 1930s in Northern New Mexico. Population numbers of elk in Nebraska continued to increase through the 1970s and 1980s, to a level in which complaints from landowners in the Pine Ridge region led to the implementation of relatively liberal hunting seasons in the late 1980s. Elk numbers continued to increase through the 1990s to the present. All Rocky Mountain elk in Washington are the result of reintroductions conducted in

209-554: The 1930s to the 1970s kept the state's population between 24 and 70 individuals. With improved research and management by the Pennsylvania Game Commission in the late 1970s, the population began to increase. The herd has continued to increase, and numbered approximately 1,350 individuals by 2020. They are legally hunted through strict permitting, and have also generated a local ecotourism industry. In recent years, elk from Utah have been used to reestablish

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228-542: The early 1900s from Yellowstone elk herds. These initial reintroductions have expanded their range and have also been translocated within the State. Not all of these elk have all the habitat to be successful in large numbers; supplemental feeding programs are used to compensate for lost winter range . 72 Rocky Mountain elk were introduced into Pennsylvania in 1913, replacing the extinct eastern elk . Introductions continued for several decades, but legal and illegal hunting from

247-423: The elk an advantage over the wolves in their predator prey relationship because wolves rely on deep snow to hunt elk in winter ranges of Yellowstone. The total wild population is about one million individuals. The Rocky Mountain elk was reintroduced in 1913 to Colorado from Wyoming after the near extinction of the regional herds. While overhunting is a significant contributing factor, the elk's near extinction

266-610: The former range of the extinct eastern elk . Their populated Canadian ranges occur in Alberta 's Jasper and Banff National Parks as well as British Columbia 's Kootenay and Yoho National Parks . As of 2010, the Rocky Mountain elk herd was diagnosed with a serious disorder called chronic wasting disease (CWD). CWD affects the brain tissue of infected elk and is similar in symptoms to bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), commonly known as mad-cow disease (MCD). There

285-712: The subspecies after his friend Theodore Roosevelt , then Assistant Secretary of the US Navy . The desire to protect the Roosevelt elk was one of the primary forces behind the establishment of the Mount Olympus National Monument in 1909 by President Theodore Roosevelt. Later in 1937, President Franklin D. Roosevelt visited the region and saw the elk named after his relative. The following year he created Olympic National Park . The Roosevelt elk grows to around 6–10 ft (1.8–3.0 m) in length and stands 2.5–5.6 ft (0.76–1.71 m) tall at

304-423: The summer it migrates to the subalpine forests and alpine basins. Elk have a diverse habitat range that they can reside in but are most often found in forest and forest edge habitat and in mountain regions they often stay in higher elevations during warmer months and migrate down lower in the winter. They may even come down the mountain and leave the forest into some grassland for part of the day but head back into

323-526: The timber in the evening. Climate change/warming can keep elk in their higher elevation habitats for longer into the winter than normal. Climate changes such as warming have in some cases even increased the seasonal range of elk in the winter. For example, in Yellowstone the climate warming has kept the snow at a lower level than in the past and has given the elk the ability to populate higher ranges than before. The lack of snow in Yellowstone has also given

342-406: The top 10 Roosevelt elk would score in the top 20 of Pope and Young's Rocky Mountain elk. From late spring to early fall, the Roosevelt elk feeds upon herbaceous plants , such as grasses and sedges . During winter months, it feeds on woody plants, including highbush cranberry , elderberry , devil's club , and newly planted seedlings ( Douglas fir and western redcedar ). The Roosevelt elk

361-481: Was reintroduced to British Columbia 's Sunshine Coast from Vancouver Island in 1986. Rocky Mountain elk Cervus elaphus nelsoni The Rocky Mountain elk ( Cervus canadensis nelsoni ) is a subspecies of elk found in the Rocky Mountains and adjacent ranges of Western North America . The winter ranges are most common in open forests and floodplain marshes in the lower elevations. In

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