North Carolina Released 52 Elk Into Dying Mountains — What Happened to This Valley Is Unexpected
#ElkReintroduction #NorthCarolinaElk #WildlifeConservation In January two thousand one, North Carolina began releasing wild elk into the Cataloochee Valley, fifty-two of them over two seasons, into a southern Appalachian range that had not held a single elk in over two centuries. By two thousand twenty two, scientists tracking those elk and their descendants through fecal dna found something the original biologists had quietly stopped predicting. The herd was not just surviving. It was not just breeding. It was growing at a rate that, in the early years, the project team had openly admitted might never happen. Annual female growth rates were so high they exceeded what most reintroduced elk populations in North America had ever produced. Subscribe to the Channel here 👉: / @dailydiscoveriesoff SOURCES : National Park Service — Elk in Great Smoky Mountains National Park https://www.nps.gov/grsm/learn/nature... National Park Service — Environmental Assessment for the Establishment of Elk in Great Smoky Mountains National Park (2010) https://npshistory.com/publications/g... National Park Service — Elk Environmental Assessment Approved (October 2011 Finding of No Significant Impact) https://www.nps.gov/grsm/learn/news/e... National Park Service — Experimental Elk Release Briefing Statement (2007) https://npshistory.com/publications/g... Braunstein, J.L., Clark, J.D., Augustine, B., Hickman, C., McVey, J., and Yarkovich, J.G. (2025). Spatially explicit capture-recapture using fecal DNA to estimate elk population abundance and growth in western North Carolina, USA. Journal of Wildlife Management, 89(4), e22733. https://wildlife.onlinelibrary.wiley.... USGS Publications Warehouse — Spatially explicit capture-recapture using fecal DNA to estimate elk demographics in North Carolina https://pubs.usgs.gov/publication/702... Braunstein, J.L. (2023). Population Abundance and Growth of Elk in Western North Carolina. University of Tennessee, Knoxville — Doctoral Dissertation. https://trace.tennessee.edu/utk_gradd... Braunstein dissertation — Full PDF https://trace.tennessee.edu/bitstream... North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission — Elk Species Page https://www.ncwildlife.gov/species/elk North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission — Elk Management Strategy https://www.ncwildlife.gov/media/2163... University of Tennessee — Feasibility Assessment for Reintroduction of North American Elk into Great Smoky Mountains National Park (1996) https://trace.tennessee.edu/cgi/viewc... Williams et al. — Elk Habitat Suitability Map for North Carolina (Southeastern Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies Proceedings) https://seafwa.org/sites/default/file...
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