Laserfiche WebLink
determine elk productivity. Calving home ranges were determined using <br />Mohr's (1947) minimum convex polygon method. Calving home range fidelity <br />was compared by examining amount of overlap between home ranges in <br />consecutive years and by comparing distance between year to year calving <br />home range activity centers ("arithmetic mean center", Dixon and Chapman, <br />1980; "geometric center", VanWinkle, 1975). Habitat utilization was <br />determined by calculating the percentage of transmittered elk locations <br />within each vegetation type. Details for all of the above methods are given <br />in the 1985 Completion Report. <br />' RESULTS <br />' Trapping <br />Elk trapping was conducted from July 31 to October 25, 1985. A list of all <br />captures is given in Table 1 (Elk Trapping Results). A summary of trap <br />success is given in Table 2 (Summary of Elk Trapping). 246 trap nights <br />yielded 39 captures. Calves and bulls were released untagged. Thirteen new <br />transmitters were placed on cow elk. Nine transmitters were placed on <br />previously untagged elk. Two new transmitters were placed on elk which had <br />old transmitters. One transmitter was placed on a cow which had been <br />previously ear tagged as a calf and one transmitter was used to replace a <br />conventional collar on a cow that had been previously tagged. No trap <br />mortalities or significant injuries occurred during trapping. <br />' Monitoring <br /> <br /> <br />1 <br /> <br />1 <br />1 <br /> <br />Monitoring between August 1, 1985 and July 31, 1986 of 29 transmittered elk <br />yielded 375 locations (Table 3, Monthly Summary of Transmittered Elk <br />Locations, and Table 4, Yearly Summary of Transmittered Elk Locations). <br />Locations of 18 of these elk have been mapped (Tables 17 - 34 and associated <br />maps). Eleven elk with transmitters were not mapped due to early mortality <br />or transmitter failure (Table 16). There were also nineteen locations of <br />conventionally collared, ear tagged and previously failed transmitter <br />collared elk (Tables 15 and 16). <br />Mortality <br />During the current reporting period (August 1, 1985 to July 31, 1986) <br />thirteen transmitters were last or failed. Four of these are attributed to <br />mortalities and nine to transmitter failure or loss (Table 5, Mortality and <br />Fate of Radio Transmittered Cow Elk). Three transmittered elk were <br />harvested and one was lost as a result of wounding. Although no illegal <br />harvest was documented, only three of the eight transmitter failures have <br />been confirmed. However, four of the unconfirmed failures exceeded the <br />guaranteed battery life of the transmitter so were anticipated transmitter <br />failures. <br />Returned collars were also received from two conventionally collared cow elk <br />which were harvested (Table 6, Elk Harvested in 1985). <br />-2- <br />