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Southwest Washington Wildlife Reports
February 26, 2007

Region 5 Wildlife Areas:

Mt. St. Helens Wildlife Area Emergency Winter Feeding: Use rate of hay by elk has been high this past week. The daily feed rate is at 4,000 pounds of alfalfa hay per day. With the recent and expected more severe weather, we plan to bump the feed rate to 5,750 pounds of alfalfa every other day and evaluate the use until weather moderates. Counts from the road during daily feeding operations have been consistently above an estimated 350 elk or higher. Using estimates from the daily road counts, there are probably close to 600 animals now using the mudflow area.

Klickitat Wildlife Area Golden Eagle Research: Acting Wildlife Area Manager Van Leuven assisted the golden eagle research team in their effort to capture and radio-tag golden eagles. Van Leuven assisted in locating nest sites, providing bait, and placing bait for trapping. A male bird was captured and equipped with a GPS transmitter on February 22nd. The transmitter lasts 3 to 4 years and placing the transmitter on a resident Washington bird was a high priority as many birds turn out to be transients. A second site was set up for trapping February 23rd. Trapping success there is unknown at this time.

Game Management Division

Post-Season Elk Survey: WDFW Wildlife Biologists Holman and Woodin conducted an elk survey in the Lewis River Game Management Unit (GMU 560) last week. Recent low-elevation snowfall aided in concentrating the elk on lower slopes. In addition, the flight occurred in a window between weather fronts that allowed the elk to take thermal advantage of sunny south-facing slopes.

A total of 388 elk were classified with 60 bulls, 228 cows and 100 calves. This results in a bull:cow ratio of 26% and calf:cow ratio of 44%, both indicative of a healthy elk population. The proportion of bulls was 53% spikes, 37% raghorns, and 10% mature.

A huge thanks goes to our helicopter pilot, Jess Hagerman, for his incredible skills in maneuvering the ship to increase our time observing and accurately identifying the elk.