How Elk are adapting to being hunted

[BenV]

I don't know if this is of use to anyone, but this is an article on how (female) elk are adaptin their behaviour to being hunted: article on IFLS (http://www.iflscience.com/plants-and-animals/female-elk-can-tell-what-kind-of-weapon-hunters-are-likely-carrying-and-act-accordingly/).

[Steeleco]

My son's current boss at Penask lake told him of this article. What a complete bunch of hog wash. But that's just my pseudo educated opinion LOL

[longwalk]

What a crock. I'm going to go outside now and play with my stack of elk antlers because that's the only reason I kill elk is to have the antlers. Rats, just remembered I don't have any elk antlers. I guess they are safe from me.

[wideopenthrottle]

heheh...ya my 6x6 rack was so important to me that I gave it to my hunting partner to hang in his garage....

[J_T]

I'm not so sure it's incorrect. Perhaps the component suggesting cow elk are smart enough to 'know' is a bit of a stretch, but it makes sense that the actions of the hunter at the moment the hunter/elk become aware of each other is different and these actions of the hunter at that moment may dictate the elk's actions....

[DarekG]

I think that most hunted species know when its hunting season and when its not, doesn't just apply to Elk. They have different ranges at different times of the year.

[BenV]

From the elk's perspective we're not much different than wolves and cougars. We've been hunting them long enough for them to adapt, I'd wager. Now we've not been sitting on our hands either, it is not like we're still hunting them with sharp sticks, so we'll have some nice antlers to show for our efforts still. But it is not like they are all lining up for a textbook kill shot, either.

I'm sure this goes for any species hunted by humans, but if you've researched elks you can't just map your results onto other species, even when it seems like common sense.

Nonsense or not, I found it an interesting article.

[ChronoShooter]

I saw a CBC thing on this. The animals were tracked using GPS collars. Unless I'm mistaken, collared animals were sucessfully hunted at least once... to put the collars on.

So their observations are limited to elk that have already been "killed". Nice work.

Thus we can conculde that being sucessfully hunted makes elk wary of hunters.

Who was the lead author? Captain Obvious, PhD.?

[wideopenthrottle]

https://www.pinterest.com/pin/99008891788330715/

reminds me of one of my favourite Gary Larson far side comics...top left one on this link

[BenV]

one of my favourite Gary Larson far side comics...

Ha! Before I opened the link I knew exactly which one you meant. TFS is awesome. And remember! Objects in the mirror are closer than they appear... ;-)

[Asco]

Pseudo science. Bad experimental design. Confirmation bias
MALARKEY