In winter they paw through the snow for grass and eat the twigs and bark of trees, especially aspen. In spring and summer, elk feed on grasses, sedges, forbs, aquatic plants, and leaves of trees and shrubs, such as aspens, willows, serviceberry, and chokeberry. To find feeding sign, you must know the animal’s diet. But because they are social animals which travel in groups, you often find a mess of tracks left by multiple animals rather than a nice clear trail pattern of one individual.Ĭlumped pellets dropped by an elk in early fall when the diet was still composed mainly of fresh, green vegetation. The larger, rounder track on the right is the front.Įlk usually travel in an alternating walk with a step length of 1 1/2 to 3 feet, and a trail width of 7-13 inches. In soft substrate or when the animal is running, hooves may splay and dewclaws may register. Like deer and moose, elk have 2 dewclaws on each foot, situated higher up on the leg. Hind tracks are smaller and narrower, about 3 1/2 inches long and 3 inches wide. Front tracks of an adult are about 4 inches long and wide. However, elk tracks are noticeably rounder. Elk tracks are larger than deer tracks and smaller than moose tracks, but overlap in size with both deer and moose tracks. Tracks and trailsĪs members of the deer family, elk have cloven hooves. The elk in the photo above was captured with a trail camera targeting the antler rub (see below under “rutting behavior”) because the bull was likely to return.
Identifying elk tracks and sign is essential for camera trapping the species and rutting sign is especially useful because animals tend to re-use these spots. Its tracks and sign are similar to those of deer, but think larger hooves, longer strides, larger scat pellets, and look for feeding sign and antler rubs higher on trees. The elk, Cervus canadensis (formerly Cervus elaphus canadensis), is one of the largest members of the deer family.
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