View Full Version : Elk on Whitetop Mountain Virginia
No Directions
07-01-2013, 19:38
While hiking on Whitetop Mountain in Virginia yesterday I came across these tracks. At first I thought they were deer but they are too big and they had 2 round spike holes at the heel. After some research I found out they are elk tracks. I did read that some elk were introduced into Buchanan County, VA recently but this would have been some distance for them to travel including crossing a busy interstate to reach Whitetop Mountain. Has anyone seen elk in this area?
22306
No, but I saw them in deep woods and open fields in GSMNP and around Cherokee NC.
HeartFire
07-02-2013, 16:07
The Elk in the Smokies have been tracked (radio collar) over to Hot Springs and back - over 30 miles.
Pedaling Fool
07-02-2013, 16:26
There have been other releases http://www.tricities.com/news/local/article_631004fa-c4da-11e2-ae89-001a4bcf6878.html
And the releases have been in Buchanan, Dickenson, and Wise counties http://www.dgif.virginia.gov/hunting/regulations/elk.asp
Any one know how far these areas are from Whitetop mountain, roughly?
Lone Wolf
07-02-2013, 16:32
you can hunt them too in Va.
No Directions
07-02-2013, 20:12
I took a day trip to Cataloochee in GSMNP for the sole purpose of seeing elk and had no problem finding a herd. I stood by my car on the road and they approached within 50 feet of me.
No Directions
07-02-2013, 20:19
There have been other releases http://www.tricities.com/news/local/article_631004fa-c4da-11e2-ae89-001a4bcf6878.html
And the releases have been in Buchanan, Dickenson, and Wise counties http://www.dgif.virginia.gov/hunting/regulations/elk.asp
Any one know how far these areas are from Whitetop mountain, roughly?
Those three counties are on the Kentucky border. According to Google Maps they are 80+ miles from Whitetop. Road miles. Seems that crossing busy I-81 wouldn't fare too well for the elk. Or cars/trucks.
Pedaling Fool
07-03-2013, 08:19
Those three counties are on the Kentucky border. According to Google Maps they are 80+ miles from Whitetop. Road miles. Seems that crossing busy I-81 wouldn't fare too well for the elk. Or cars/trucks.Yeah, I ended up doing a rough mileage calculation on google maps and came up with the same.
Assuming the OP correctly ID'd the prints, then I guess maybe he saw the prints of someone's escaped pet :D
Pedaling Fool
07-03-2013, 08:20
Yeah, I ended up doing a rough mileage calculation on google maps and came up with the same.
Assuming the OP correctly ID'd the prints, then I guess maybe he saw the prints of someone's escaped pet :DI just realized, you are the OP.
you can hunt them too in Va.
Which is one of the primary reasons why the eastern elk are now extinct. I received some telling inside info from Tillie at Woods Hole Hostel before her passing about the subject. Her late husband was an assistant to the Secretary of the Interior during the Carter adminstration who studied and attempted to save the last remaining eastern elk before they became extinct. I'll never forget that lady and Woods Hole Hostel and the two pics on her firplace, one of of her huband taken on the day before his passing and the other of one of the very last eastern elk before it was shot by a hunter. According to her, if I'm remembering this correctly, she said then VA Hunting Laws made no distinction between shooting Whitail Deer and Eastern Elk even though the elk were on the Endangered Species list therfore hunters shot the elk too, into extinction.
Pedaling Fool
07-03-2013, 17:37
Which is one of the primary reasons why the eastern elk are now extinct. I received some telling inside info from Tillie at Woods Hole Hostel before her passing about the subject. Her late husband was an assistant to the Secretary of the Interior during the Carter adminstration who studied and attempted to save the last remaining eastern elk before they became extinct. I'll never forget that lady and Woods Hole Hostel and the two pics on her firplace, one of of her huband taken on the day before his passing and the other of one of the very last eastern elk before it was shot by a hunter. According to her, if I'm remembering this correctly, she said then VA Hunting Laws made no distinction between shooting Whitail Deer and Eastern Elk even though the elk were on the Endangered Species list therfore hunters shot the elk too, into extinction.I don't know the history of elk in the U.S.
Maybe there was a push to kill them for agricultural reasons, maybe the "hunter" that shot the "last one" isn't a hunter as we know them today.
But I do know from what little I've read since this thread was opened is that it is hunters that were the main impetus in getting elk re-established, (did you hug a hunter today :))
Also, I don't know, but your interpretation/information of Virginia hunting laws may be wrong, at least today's laws.
Lone Wolf
07-03-2013, 18:14
http://www.dgif.virginia.gov/hunting/regulations/elk.asp
Tuckahoe
07-03-2013, 18:18
If deer in Virginia were basically gone in Virginia by the early 20th century, then you can bet that elk were gone from Virginia by the mid-19th century. Virginia hunting regulations would not have addressed elk in the 1970s as there would not have been any.
http://www.dgif.virginia.gov/hunting/regulations/elk.asp
Doesn't make sense to me. Why on earth would they treat them the same as deer? Just easier and more conveienent?
Bucketfoot
07-04-2013, 00:21
Outside of the 3 counties where the where a herd is trying to be restored the elk are considered to be a nuisance to farmers and a danger in more populated areas. They really make a mess out of your vehicle when you hit one not to mention your own personal safety in such an encounter. The elk herd in Pennsylvania is confined to a small area of several counties for essentialy these reasons.