Elk are seen eating grass along Connaught Drive, in Jasper. | N. Veerman photo. Just about everyone in Jasper has a story about running into an elk, but new research suggests modifying elk behaviour could help reduce the number of encounters.
Elk are seen eating grass along Connaught Drive, in Jasper. | N. Veerman photo.
Just about everyone in Jasper has a story about running into an elk, but new research suggests modifying elk behaviour could help reduce the number of encounters.
Rob Found, a researcher with the University of Alberta, spent the past five years studying elk behaviour to better understand why some individuals choose to live near humans while others prefer to live in the wild.
What he found was elk, like humans, have individual personalities and respond differently to aversive conditioning, impacting where they choose to live.
“If we can actually change the costs and benefits [in where they live] we can actually change their behaviour,” said Found, during an hour-long seminar at the Jasper Legion last week.
“The idea is to systematically chase them to increase their fear or weariness of humans and by doing this it makes it a lot more costly [for them] to live in townsites or live near humans.”
To do his research, Found used a number of aversive conditioning techniques, such as loud sounds and chasing the animals, to see if it would affect an elk’s behaviour.
What he found was elk that live in town tend to display bolder behaviour, but are also more likely to respond to aversive conditioning, such as being chased.
In contrast, wild elk tend to be shier and are less likely to react to aversive conditioning.
At the same time he also found bolder elk tend to lose their wariness overtime, suggesting that for aversive conditioning to be effective it must be used consistently and over a long period of time.
“There is no perfect solution,” said Found.
“You can’t force elk out of town. You basically have to convince them that it’s a bad decision to be in town and that itself has to be a long-term commitment.”
His research adds to other techniques, such as culling or relocating, to control the number of elk that live near townsites, although he threw cold water on both the ideas.
“The problem with killing them is that it really doesn’t work. It’s a Band Aid type solution,” he said, explaining that elk choose to live with humans as part of their strategy to stay alive and will continue to do so if the benefits outweigh the costs.
In Jasper, Parks Canada employees use a number of techniques, such as fencing and hazing, to push habituated elk out of town.
“Aversive conditioning is the same as hazing except it’s a more intense level,” said Steve Malcolm, human wildlife conflict specialist for Jasper National Park.
“Basic hazing is where you go in and move the animal at a slow pace. It’s basically on a reactive basis whenever they come in and we decide its time to get them out of here.”
He said the daily ritual has become so routine that in many ways the elk recognize when a vehicle arrives its time to go.
“We use aversive conditioning more for predators,” said Malcolm, explaining that when it’s a bear or cougar they will keep pressure on the animal for up to five days.
“That way we are retraining that individual that this is now an unacceptable behaviour and maybe it will prevent us from having to destroy them in the long term.”
Currently there are about 400 elk that live in Jasper National Park, including 100 to 150 that are considered habituated animals, said Malcolm.
Not all hazing techniques have been successful.
In 1998, Parks Canada relocated 230 elk from Jasper as part of a strategy to mitigate the number of human and elk conflicts.
Nearly 10 years later, the number of elk rebounded.
“It’s honestly like shovelling sand at a beach. You push them out and as soon as the vacancy sign is up it’s like the best hotel room for these elk.”
