Black bear predation on elk calves was studied extensively in the Clearwater region in the 1970's, by Idaho F&G biologist, Mike Schlegel. That was when game biologists had to actually be in the field.... He found that black bears can hit elk calves hard for about the first 6 weeks of life and after that, there is hardly any predation at all from bears. The first two weeks of life is where black bears get most of them. In the Clearwater, range conditions and snow pack kept calving elk and bears in close proximity. He called it the perfect "predator pit" His study is interesting reading. Current biologists have tried to tear down the study and not place the blame directly on bears or any predator for that matter.
Schlegel's study also removed and relocated some bears just to see if that would ease the predation. Even though some bears were moved well over a 100 miles away, they still came back to the same vicinity where they were captured. When they did lower bear numbers, elk calf survival increased, but it was a short term thing and eventually bear predation went back up.
Lions kill elk calves year round so I can see why bear predation is just a fraction of lion kills in the stats listed above. Even when elk calves are up and moving well they are likely to do something dumb and lions really like to key in on certain animals. And elk-calf sized critter makes an easy target. Even a 5-6 month old calf would still be just the right size for a lion to kill. An elk calf less than a week or two old would be an easy target for anything that bites and is over 10 lbs.
Last edited by Lonny; 01/07/22.
