A new home for tule elks
Rounding up elk by helicopter, state wildlife officials netted 37 animals at the San Luis National Wildlife Refuge near Los Banos last week and trucked them to new habitat to expand the population in California.
Home to 77 tule elk, the refuge is big enough for just 50 animals, so the nonprofit Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation contributed $10,000 to help the Department of Fish and Game relocate some to California’s Wind Wolves Preserve, Grizzly Island Wildlife Area and Cache Creek Wildlife Area, where they will mix with other herds, says Mike Ford, an elk foundation regional director.
About 500,000 tule elk once roamed the Central Valley from Red Bluff to Bakersfield, but settlers nearly wiped them out and 4,000 remain today.
-- Ashley Powers
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