Alaska Wildlife Conservation Center officials say a Rocky Mountain elk calf born there Sunday marks the latest success in a program meant to repopulate parts of the Aleutian Islands with game.
According to AWCC Executive Director Mike Miller, an intern who had worked with elk in Jackson Hole, Wyo. named the calf Jackson. The calf, born at midday Sunday, is the center's fourth successful elk birth this year among its herd of 18 animals. Six wood bison calves have been born in AWCC's larger herd of 130 to 140 bison, although Miller says the births have been delayed for both species.
"Actually, they're late -- I don't know if it had something to do with the late spring," Miller said.
Miller says elk born at AWCC have previously been sent to farms on Point Mackenzie, but all of this year's elk will be released on 65-square-mile Akun Island in the Aleutians -- countering the presence of non-native cattle introduced to the island chain in previous centuries.
"These released elk will inhabit (the island) providing a new more natural use of subsistence for the village of Akutan," Miller wrote. "Eight adult elk will accompany the calves."
Bruce Chisholm, a veterinarian who has supervised the release of 6,000 elk, has volunteered to accompany the elk to Akun Island. A female elk will be fitted with a radio collar, in an effort to let schoolchildren track the animals' migration patterns.
Miller says both bison and elk breeding have been restricted, primarily due to a shortage of land at the center. A U.S. Forest Service grant through the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation to buy more acreage should allow for more breeding in future years.
Contact Chris Klint