Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Elk Hunting Texas elk?

Yep! They look Just like the Elk the west coast Prune pickers brag about at the game stations in Colorado, , every fall. Rio7

Mudhen, were the Merriam's Elk, smaller than the Rocky mountain Elk ? or Yellowstone Elk? Rio7

It is generally accepted that they were a little smaller, but no real evidence exists at the population level. They were basically extinct before anyone had an opportunity to study them.

Ben, what's your take on Merriams??? Apparently many think they never were a seperate sub species. That they never existed.

Too funny!!!

Considering the old Spanish word (17th-18th century) use for elk was "Buro". One "R".

I think that, as likely as not, they were a desert adapted ecotype (the new term for most populations of what have been called subspecies). The few museum specimens that exist do show some variation in size and skull characteristics compared with the Rocky Mountain elk. However, they were described during the time when vertebrate taxonomists made their reputations describing previously unnamed taxa, and many of the "subspecies" have since been found to not be genetically distinct from their sister subspecies. With the advent of DNA analyses, it has finally become possible to mathematically describe just how different or alike any two individual specimens or populations really are.

Coincidentally, I spent most of the day at a gathering over in Portal, AZ, on the west side of the Chiricahua Mountains. When I moved down here 25 years ago, I researched the possible occurrence of elk in the Animas and Peloncillo Mountains here in New Mexico and the Chiricahuas over in Arizona. There were no valid records of elk from either mountain range, nor were there records for the Sierra San Luis and Sierra Madre south of us in Mexico. Recently, a prehistoric archeological site just outside of Portal was revisited and the depth and extent of the excavations were extended. I had heard that the dig had turned both elk and bison bones, neither had ever been known to occur in these "sky island" mountain ranges. A friend who works at the Arizona Historical Society in Tucson was there today and I asked her about this. She confirmed the finds and promised to send me a copy of the report.

I think that we have a Pollyanna-like notion that the first naturalists to visit many parts of the west and record their observations were describing a pristine and relatively static landscape. In fact, the Apaches and their predecessors had been here for a long time before the first anglos were finally able to spend any amount of time here. They had a tremendous impact on the native biota, both large and small. Small, isolated populations of elk and bison which had been here since the late pleistocene could very well have been extinguished by aboriginal hunters prior to the visits of the first Europeans. They certainly did it with many other pleistocene large mammals.

Thanks Ben! Makes heck of a lot more sense. Was speaking again with old son last night (both my sons received anthropology degrees, young son went on with his studies) and he asked if I remember there field school when he was a senior in Natchitoches. It was a pre-contact (not by much) Caddoan site on the grounds of the federal fish hatchery. He went on to say that he finally got a chance to see the completed report on their work and some of the faunal remains they found were identified as a large cervid most likely elk.

Coworker has in-laws in the floyadada area and he says a couple of ranches in the"area" have elk and they are "well protected".

Kaywoodie,
Those Texas elk with the long ears are related to THE TEXAS JACKALOPE. Here is a real Texas elk cow taken on the Long View Ranch in 2013:



No horns, but a lot of excellent meat!

PS - since you have such good taste in rifles, you may want to check out some recent threads over on Africa Hunting forum that deal with .405 double rifles:
https://www.africahunting.com/threads/double-rifle-in-405-winchester.38622/

Thanks CR!!!

The last law listed is a bit odd. Are you supposed to get the owners consent before you acquire their carcass? You sure as hell won't get consent after you acquire it!