Below is a Facebook post from the Utah Division of Wildlife Resources.
Last month, at our Hardware Wildlife Management Area, we gave 76 elk (41 cows and 35 calves) a health checkup. We drew blood from the cows to test for brucellosis and check for pregnancy. Twenty-one of the 35 calves received either a GPS neck collar or a tracker attached to their ears. The collars and ear tags allow us to track the calves’ movements and tell us how many survive their first year of life and become part of a herd.
Luckily, none of the cows tested positive for brucellosis, which causes cow elk to miscarry their young. We test for the disease annually. The cows’ body condition was great, and they had plenty of fat!
Even though the neck collars we place expand as an animal grows, we wanted to try something new on the male elk calves. Instead of placing neck collars on them, we attached solar-powered tracking devices to their ears. If conditions are right, they can provide us with eight locations a day. We’re excited to see how this new way of tracking elk works!
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(Photo credit: Utah Division of Wildlife Resources)