At first, elk restricted their movements to ALE. Scientists thought the elk would leave with the onset of summer, but they stayed and prospered. Conventional wisdom was that the treeless steppe was too hot, too dry, and had too little vegetation to shade or conceal them. When the first elk arrived on ALE, no one thought they would stay. Elk eat almost constantly during the summer, building up fat stores in preparation for winter. An elk's diet consists primarily of grass (thus they are referred to as grazing animals), but they also will consume seedlings and twigs, berries, mushrooms, cattails, and wildflowers. During the day, elk use sagebrush shrubs to conceal themselves and for shade. Because little vegetation exists in the shrub-steppe to hide their movements, they may use darkness as a form of concealment. Elk on ALE spend most of their time in open lowland areas, except during the calving period in April and May. They can live in a variety of habitats as long as they find enough shelter, water, and plenty of space without human interference. In late summer, an elk's coat changes to a brownish-gray color.Įlk spend most of their lives in family groups (females and offspring) that often come to form huge herds of 100 or more during late fall and winter. When calves are born in early June, their coat remains spotted until late summer. Animals hit in the hind leg or front shoulder can cause additional losses of 2 to 3 % of the meat yield, and trim waste can be upwards of 20 lbs on an elk if the meat is dirty or if you (or the butcher) is not meticulous in recovering all edible portions.Mature bulls can be identified in herds at a distance of a mile or more because they often are much lighter in color (almost white) in contrast to cows and yearling bulls. Losses of otherwise good meat can add up when the meat is not kept clean in the field or if there is a lot of damage from the bullet(s). A 3 ½ year old mule deer buck can give you around 72 lbs of meat and a 7 ½ year old upwards of 100 lbs. For example, a 3 ½ year old bull elk can give you around 200 lbs and a 10 ½ year old bull about 270 lbs of boneless lean meat. Older animals are larger so they will provide you more meat. The size of the animal is dependent on its age. Of course, these boneless lean meat yield values can vary a lot because of several factors. It would seem reasonable that you can use a rule-of-thumb measure that ☖0% of the weight of your skinned-out headless game animal will be your yield of boneless lean meat. White-tailed deer will yield less than a mule deer, and moose will yield more than an elk. You can expect that the yield of boneless lean meat you will get back will be around 59% of the weight of a skinned-out mule deer buck and 56% of the weight of a skinned-out mule deer doe. Removing the head and hide drops around 18 lbs from the field-dressed weight of a buck and around 14 lbs off a doe. Bucks yielded, on average, 55 lbs of boneless meat and does yielded 44 lbs. When the University of Wyoming looked at mule deer, they found that the average field-dressed weight of a buck was 114 lbs and a doe was 93 lbs. Since many hunters take their elk to a butcher already skinned with the head removed, you can expect to get back around 60% of the weight of your skinned-out headless elk as boneless lean meat.

Researchers were purposely trimming off the game fat, and the meat was also aged for 14 days before all the final weighing was done. Lean meat is defined as meat with less than 1.4 % fat. Researchers reported that bull elk yielded an average of 218 lbs of boneless lean meat and cows yielded an average of 169 lbs of boneless lean meat. Skinning and removing the head drops about 73 lbs off the average field-dressed weight of a bull elk and about 45 lbs off a cow elk. A field-dressed carcass is an animal that has been gutted with the lower legs and windpipe removed but still has the head and hide on it. In the study conducted on Rocky Mountain Elk, bulls had an average field-dressed weight of 437 lbs and cows had an average of 339 lbs. Researchers were determined to measure how much boneless meat a typical animal should give you. In 2003, a couple of studies were done at the University of Wyoming to answer this very question. But after all your hard work, have you ever been shocked when your butcher hands over a small box of meat when you come to pick up your deer order? Are you thinking you got ripped off? Deer, elk and moose are big animals, but how much meat should you expect get back from your harvest? Game animals are big, and it is hard work processing and packing them out of the mountains. Hunting season is well underway across Canada, and hunters are busy filling their freezers with healthy wild game meat.

Rocky mountain elk weight