Nature
Elk’s Personality an Important Factor in Successful Hunting
Brooke Miller
First Posted: Sep 06, 2012 10:28 AM EDT
Researchers from the University of Alberta claim that an elk's personality is an important factor that determines whether or not it will last through the hunting season.
In order to proceed with the study, the researchers collected data from GPS collars on more than 100 male and female elk in southwestern Alberta. They suggested the population to be divided into two categories namely bold runners and shy hiders.
The bold runner elk that included both male and female were noted for their quick moves and preferred to gaze in open fields. Whereas according to the GPS data the shy hiders stayed and grazed on the bare vegetation of wooded areas and moved slowly and carefully. They noticed that bold-runners were taken by elk hunters than shy hiders.
Lead researcher Simone Ciuti says, "This is the first time an animal's personality type has been linked to survival in a hunting season.
"Up until now it was believed the physical traits of an elk dictated what animals were taken by hunters," said Ciuti. "Big male elk with large antler racks are traditionally the prime target for hunters."
According to the release published in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B, the GPS data collected over one hunting season shows hunters are going for the most visible or available elk and understandably more, bold-runner elks showed up in the scopes of high-powered rifles.
For the study, the researchers had considered a 45, two-and-a-half-year old male elk. At the age of two-and-a-half-year years of age the young males were eligible hunting targets. Thirty-three per cent of the males were taken by hunters. All were identified by GPS data as bold runners. Same held true for 77 female elk. The shy hiders were taken by the hunters and only the bold runners survived.
Ciuti says, "It shows in females that whether they're bold runner or shy hiders, if they lived to 9 years of age, they adapted to hunters and became less visible targets."
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First Posted: Sep 06, 2012 10:28 AM EDT
Researchers from the University of Alberta claim that an elk's personality is an important factor that determines whether or not it will last through the hunting season.
In order to proceed with the study, the researchers collected data from GPS collars on more than 100 male and female elk in southwestern Alberta. They suggested the population to be divided into two categories namely bold runners and shy hiders.
The bold runner elk that included both male and female were noted for their quick moves and preferred to gaze in open fields. Whereas according to the GPS data the shy hiders stayed and grazed on the bare vegetation of wooded areas and moved slowly and carefully. They noticed that bold-runners were taken by elk hunters than shy hiders.
Lead researcher Simone Ciuti says, "This is the first time an animal's personality type has been linked to survival in a hunting season.
"Up until now it was believed the physical traits of an elk dictated what animals were taken by hunters," said Ciuti. "Big male elk with large antler racks are traditionally the prime target for hunters."
According to the release published in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B, the GPS data collected over one hunting season shows hunters are going for the most visible or available elk and understandably more, bold-runner elks showed up in the scopes of high-powered rifles.
For the study, the researchers had considered a 45, two-and-a-half-year old male elk. At the age of two-and-a-half-year years of age the young males were eligible hunting targets. Thirty-three per cent of the males were taken by hunters. All were identified by GPS data as bold runners. Same held true for 77 female elk. The shy hiders were taken by the hunters and only the bold runners survived.
Ciuti says, "It shows in females that whether they're bold runner or shy hiders, if they lived to 9 years of age, they adapted to hunters and became less visible targets."
See Now: NASA's Juno Spacecraft's Rendezvous With Jupiter's Mammoth Cyclone