diffrent herds per range

[Drawnandpinned]

Was reading thru the one that gotta way and this is where my question comes from on a decent size mountain range 20 + miles long how many different herds would u expect to be roaming around

[elk.addict]

I don't think anyone could answer that without knowing where the range is located. That'd be a good one for the local wildlife biologist.

[Lefty]

Was reading thru the one that gotta way and this is where my question comes from on a decent size mountain range 20 + miles long how many different herds would u expect to be roaming around

Herds vary to time of year and conditions.
The "open" range where I hunt I figure there are about 40 head in a 400 square miles that live there. The biologist said my guess was better than his. Field harvest and the rut brings in more elk, High Mountain valley snow brings in even more.
I saw a cow elk in my rangeland that was tagged 200 miles away 5 (?) years earlier

Often the answer is how many elk will the local ranchers allow to live there

[Swede]

Herd sizes vary a lot and change with the time of year. Range conditions vary too. In hunting season is the forage in top condition or has it been heavily grazed by cattle? Predators, roads, water, general habitat, hunters etc. all have an effect. You say the area is 20 miles long. If it is 10 miles wide that is 200 square miles. That could mean a lot of elk it conditions are good.

[timberland]

We hunt an isolated area 5x7 miles. I estimate there were about 100 elk give or take on that mountain. We saw one big herd of about 40 one about 20 and several groups of 2-3 and loner bulls in ten days of hunting

[Mikeha33]

If you're hunting in Colorado, on the CO P&W webpage, you can call a number for a "hunt planner", and they can tell you how big the herd is for a certain area. For example, I called them a few weeks ago when I was contemplating a new area, and I told them what unit I'd be in, and whereabouts I'd be hunting, and they told me there were roughly 6,000 elk in that herd for the area, with a bull to cow ratio of 31:100. He told me that was a pretty good ratio, and that the caliber of bulls, he personally knows is also pretty good for that area. I don't know if they have more specifics than that, but I'd say they could shed some additional light on the subject. They also gave me direct info about how to get ahold of the area Game Warden. It's a good resource, better than I had expected.

[ElkNut1]

Yes a pretty open question there! (grin) Terrain is a big factor here. But If I were looking at the country that many hunt with timber & mtns I would say a dozen herds could be expected in that 20 mile distance in Sept & Oct as bulls take their own groups of cows & separate themselves from the Summer larger herds that are seen right now.

ElkNut1

[Njdiverdan]

Last year I could glass 4 different herds from my base camp. It really all depends on the area.

[welka]

If you have wolves, take any number someone gives you (especially estimates from state wildlife department biologists/employees) and divide by 10.