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ENERGY AND PROTEIN-BASED SUPPLEMENTS IMPROVE DECADENT SAGEBRUSH USE BY ELK.
Author
Taylor, Justin R.
Veblen, Kari E.
Thacker, Eric T.
Villalba, Juan J.
Publisher
Society for Range Management
Publication Year
2017
Body

In the Intermountain West, elk (Cervus elaphus) often occur in high numbers and in some cases over-use the best quality rangeland, potentially threatening other wildlife species such as mule deer (Odocoileus hemionus) and Greater Sage-grouse (Centrocercus urophasianus). Many shrub-dominated communities are in late succesional stages, dominated by mature even-aged shrubs with little recruitment of young plants. Elk supplementation is an attractive option for reducing competition and for rejuvenating sagebrush stands through browsing since nutrients allow ungulates to ingest a great proportion of low-quality and secondary compound-containing woody species like sagebrush. We offered choices of high-energy (molasses) and high-protein (soybean meal) supplements presented in four feeders (2 feeders/supplement) to encourage elk to visit and forage an unproductive sagebrush stand. Elk preferred (2:1) molasses to soybean meal, and a scan sampling technique using trail cameras revealed elk consuming supplement and browsing sagebrush on 69�8.5% and 40�4.8% of the scans recorded (N=820), respectively. Sagebrush utilization was measured in a 5m wide belt transect within a distance of 100m from the feeders, and it was 75-100% at 0m from feeders, 50-75% at 40m from feeders, 25-50% at 80m from feeders, and 5-25% at 100m from feeders. In conclusion, elk supplementation is a promising strategy to rejuvenate sagebrush stands and to enhance ecosystem services in the Intermountain West.

Language
English
Resource Type
Text
Document Type
Conference Proceedings
Conference Name
SRM St. George, UT
Collection
SRM Annual Meeting Abstracts