How a Tenacious Elk Cow Helped Assure the Smokies Herd’s Future

By 2010, ten years after Elk had been reintroduced to the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, park officials were concerned that the herd population might never grow in size. Calves were being born but two out of three were not surviving the first year, mostly the result of black bears preying on newborns.

The Smokies’ fledgling elk herd had been relocated from wildlife refuges in Kentucky and Canada where bears were not a threat. So cows felt safe giving birth in fields and pastures as they had done for generations. But with an estimated 1,500 black bears in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, the herd’s future was uncertain.

Writing in the latest issue of Smokies Life, author David Brill and GSMNP Wildlife biologist Joe Yarkovich relate the story of “cow number 15” and how she helped ensure the Smokies herd’s future. Brill wrote:

While cow number 15’s story was documented with a tracking collar, all of the herd’s mothers eventually learned ways to defend their calves, often by aggressively confronting attacking bears. Today, the herd is showing a consistently positive growth rate, according to Joe Yarkovich.

Today, 20 years after the initial 52 elk were released in the park, the herd has grown to an estimated 200 elk with about half found within the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. Elk are highly mobile and move freely throughout the mountainous Western North Carolina region.

READ: David Brill’s 14-page article ‘A Graceful Giant Makes a Successful Return’ in the new fall issue of Smokies Life magazine (Vol. 15#2), available at all GSMNP visitor centers and online at Great Smoky Mountains Association’s official park store.