Range
The Willamette Valley, Klamath Mountains, West Cascades and Coast Range of Oregon.
Description
Bulls average between 700 and 1,100 pounds; cows are between 575 and 625 pounds. The average length of a Roosevelt elk is 8 feet, but mature bull elks have been measured up to 10 feet. They are dark brown and have a dark mane and yellow-brown rump.
Diet and habitat
They eat various grasses that are plentiful during typical years, as well as eating foliage from shrubs, trees and bushes including trailing blackberry, huckleberry, salal, vine maple, salmonberry, Douglas-fir, western hemlock and western redcedar. Roosevelt elk are found throughout western Oregon in riparian, mixed conifer and white oak forest types, and in parklands, grasslands and agricultural areas.
Predators and threats
They are threatened by mountain lions, bears and people.
Reproduction
Typically one calf is born between mid-May to mid-June and weighs between 30 and 35 pounds at birth. The calves remain with their mother until just before the breeding season begins in the next year.