Monday, January 17, 2011
With the abundant snowfall we’ve had this winter, it is proving tough on the elk population and they’ve moved to lower elevations which puts them in residential areas in and around Steamboat. It’s still amazing to me that we live in a rural area where we can coexist with wild animals the size of horses. We started out feeding our horses round bales of hay which weigh about 1 ton and will last a few weeks. As soon as the elk figured out where the round bales were, a herd of 20-30 animals devoured one bale in a night. So we’ve had to go back to feeding the horses with square bales during the day so none is left over for the elk to eat at night. Even though the horses don’t have as much to eat, I think they are a lot happier not having the elk in their pasture eating their food.
There are always trade offs with living in town or out of town and seeing these grand animals walking through our property on a daily basis is surely one of the great things about living in the country.
Read the article the Steamboat Pilot provided about the elk herds in Steamboat.
