Dry Wallows Again

[Swede]

It occurred to me this season that I may have never seen a true elk dry wallow. That is, not in the sense we think of wallows. I know I have said I have seen "dry wallows", but now I am not so sure. I hunt on heavily used cattle allotments. This season I watched Herford and Black Angus bulls rolling in the dust. After looking over the locations, it occurred to me that they may have been the makers of my past wallows.
This has also got me to wondering if bull elk are just dusting themselves like the Herford bulls do, and it has no correlation to actual wallowing. What do you think?

[Elkhunttoo]

We found a very heavy used dry wallow a few years back and we felt it was more to do with flies then the rut. Not sure though jmo

[CurlyTail]

I believe in Dry Wallows. I think they are common in arid areas, and uncommon in wet areas.

The area I hunt is very arid. It has burned in the past and there is no cattle grazing to allow the burned are to recover more quickly. I see every year dry wallows, and they often reek of Elk urine.

Curiously, this year, I had trail cams on two known (wet) wallows and got basically no activity. I did see one small dry wallow.

[Lefty]

We found a very heavy used dry wallow a few years back and we felt it was more to do with flies then the rut. Not sure though jmo

What he said,. it may not even be related with flies.
I remember as a young man trapping on a ranch, a rancher pointing out a dry bison wallows that had been used for hundreds of years still visible after the last bison were gone
A friend who raised bison his bison make deep dry wallows and used them all year long. ,. even in frozen Minnesota ( and sometimes they fill with water and freeze.) Our horses roll all the time ,. heck even our dogs.

While hunting the desert I don't believe I ever found a dry wallow., Hmm not sure why

[lamrith]

I would agree it is likely bug/skin related. lots of livestock roll in dirt to help with bugs.

We had lots of daily activity at two dry wallows in ID last week. no real rolling on cam, but cows, bulls, cougar, bear, wolves all passing thru. The Calves had lots of fun making dust clouds as the raced thru.

[six]

Found a dry wallow this year. Lots of elk tracks in it. They do exist.