Adult Cow Elk Survival
Southwest Study Area

Fish and Game collared 105 cow elk in the Southwest region of Idaho, including the McCall sub-region. In the first year of the study survival of those elk has been very high. The predominantly green chart here shows overall survival among the collared elk, the other chart shows cause-specific mortality for those elk that died. "Unknown predator" means that biologists are certain an animal was taken by a predator, but there is not enough conclusive evidence to determine what that predator was.

When healthy predator populations exist, mortalities due to predation normally make up the majority of deaths. Wildlife managers are more concerned with the rate of survival than the percentage of animals killed by predators. Adult cow elk survival over 85% is generally considered normal and sustainable.