Enduring elk

Set against the backdrop of Mount Diablo, tule elk graze on a variety of plants at Grizzly Island Wildlife Area just a few miles south of Fairfield. (Brian Feulner/News-Sentinel)

Enduring elk

One of the last tule elk herds: Nearly 90 roam Grizzly Island — only 3,800 are left worldwide

By Brian Feulner
News-Sentinel Staff Writer

Wednesday, May 28, 2008 4:36 PM PDT

Comments (4 comment(s))

FAIRFIELD — Just a few miles off of Highway 12, outside this busy city in Solano County roams one of the last herds of California elk. These tule elk, with their massive antlers, are among only 3,800 left in the world.

On a recent weekday morning while the sun cast golden light on the slopes of Mount Diablo, a rickety, white 1994 Ford pick-up bounced up and down over grassy levies, driven by wildlife biologist Helayna Pera.

"Look, there's a group right there," Pera said as she pointed out the window. Bulging antlers stuck up from the tall, slender grasses in the marsh. As the truck rumbled on, several tule elk lifted their giant blackish-brown bodies in response to the truck.

The elk live in the Grizzly Island Wildlife Area, located a few miles south of Fairfield on Grizzly Island Road. Grizzly Island is 14,300 acres situated within 84,000 acres of the Suisun Marsh. The territory is a giant estuarine marsh that contains the plants that feed the nearly 90 tule elk that roam the area.

Tule elk can reach up to 1,000 pounds and are the smallest of the three species of elk in the United States. The elk's main food source consists of plants such as forbs and bulrush. The male tule elks grow huge antlers, which they shed every year. During the rut, or mating season, which starts in late August and ends early in the winter, the elk can be seen antler wrestling. The males with larger antlers are more dominant.

Pera, 27, started working at Grizzly Island in November of 2006. Originally from southern California, Pera's father was in the motion picture business and trained elephants and tigers. Pera says she became a ranger because she had lots of energy and did not want a desk job.

Sitting in her truck on Grizzly Island, Pera looked out the truck window through the green and golden grasses and spotted another small group of male elk.

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"The problem with the bulls is that they like to roam onto private property and some go unaccounted for," Pera said. "They have to be managed in a modern world."

At one time, California's tule elk population stood at around 500,000. During the gold rush in the mid-1800s, most of the easily targeted animals were killed. The habitat also was slowly destroyed by non-native livestock and plants that were brought from settlers. Henry Miller, a cattleman, started working to save the elk in 1874. A Tule Elk Preserve was started near Bakersfield, in 1932.

Currently, the elk are spread out in 22 different herds all over California. The majority of these elk are maintained in wildlife areas and are closely monitored.

Tule elk have no major predators and the population can grow at a rapid rate. This is a problem for California farmers because of the elk's appetite. Highly regulated hunting is allowed at the elk reserves, including Grizzly Island, to maintain the population.

"There is nothing like driving around and seeing an 8 by 9 elk with tules, strips of velvet and cat tails hanging from him, especially when they're bugeling." said Grizzly Island Wildlife Area Manager Pat Graham.

The Grizzly Island Wildlife Area is open for general use by the public from February through July and then again at the end of September. The park is closed from the end of July to September for the annual elk hunt. The park is open daily during from sunrise to sunset.

Managing the herd

Tule elk hunts at Grizzly Island Wildlife Area occur from months of the end of July through mid-September. This year, the Department of Fish and Game issued only 10 tags for the elk at Grizzly Island. Two of the tags were auctioned off at a charitable event and received a record $50,000 to $60,000 for each tag, or about $300 a pound for elk meat, if you bag one.

The remaining eight tags are placed into a lottery system. In 2007, there were 1,551 applicants for elk tags. It costs $7.50 for a single person to be entered into the drawing. If you are one of the lucky few to get chosen, it costs $354 to buy a tag.

Hunters pay a high price for tule tags because they are the hardest of the three species of elk in the United States to get, due to their lack of tags.

According to Helayna Pera, a wildlife biologist at Grizzly Island Wildlife Area, hunting tule elk is an excellent first hunt for people. The chances of bagging a tule elk are almost 100 percent.

— News-Sentinel staff

Reader Feedback

tuleelkguy wrote on May 29, 2008 3:38 PM:

" Not really controversary, If I recall correctly the initial article had the population at 2,500, then at 3,700, now it is at 3,800. I am not going to argue between 3,700 and 3,900. But 2,500 is a very old number. The actual population is somewhere around 3,900 and of course it is an estimate (so 3,800 is pretty darn close). To the best of my knowledge phragmites is not a food item, now it may be accidentily eaten from time to time but that does not make it a food item. Listing it as a food item seems to indicate it is something they rely on for food which it is not (and I no longer see it in the article). Also, if if I recall correctly the article stated Pera was a ranger. I can not verify that because the article has been changed several times. Why would Pera state (as you put in quotes) "she became a ranger..." unless she talks about herself in the third person. She is not a ranger and I can not see her referring to herself as a ranger. The problem is specific terms have specific meanings to the people that work in those fields. Ranger has a specific context to a state park or forest Service person employeed specifically as a ranger. That idea also goes along with park, preserve, and reserve. All of these terms have specific meanings for those who work in that field. "The majority of these elk are maintained in wildlife areas and are closely monitored". That is not correct, the majority of tule elk are on private property, that being said yes there are elk in wildlife areas in several different areas of the state. I am not trying to stir the pot just point out a few things that I saw as incorrect. "

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Tikki wrote on May 29, 2008 7:46 AM:

" Ah, controversy. Tuleelkguy needs to clear up a few more things on this for me. After reading this story and then seeing the tuleelkguys feedback, I did some of my own research. Lodi News- 3800. Tuleelkguy -3900. Does anyone know the real count? Aren't these just approximate numbers? Every where I looked there were conflicting numbers. During some of my research it said they do eat phragmites, but is has no nutritional value to them. Lodi News did state Pera was a wildlife biologist. Pera stated "she became a ranger because she had lots of energy and did not want a desk job". Lodi news did state that they roam on"private property". I believe when Lodi News stated "park" it meant just that " a tract of ground kept as a game preserve or recreation area" Isn't that what the Grizzly Island Wildlife area is?
I think we can all become experts when researching the internet....or can we! "

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tuleelkguy wrote on May 28, 2008 2:34 PM:

" Just wanted to clear up a few things, first there are approximately 3,900 tule elk left and this is after recovery efforts. They were down to just a couple animals at one time. It is a huge wildlife success story for California. Elk do not eat phragmites, Helana is a biologist and not a ranger. Some of the elk are on wildlife areas but most are on private property in the coast range of California. The wildlife area is not a "Park" and the elk are not on "reserves". There are three herds which are fenced to contain the animals and none of these are hunted. These are used to transplant elk into suitable areas of California and increase genetic diversity in other tule elk herds. "

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Tikki wrote on May 28, 2008 1:49 PM:

" Great story! And the pictures are awesome. I never knew what a tule elk looked like, or the history behind them.
Love to read stories like this. Good job. "

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