Pennsylvania Game News - January 2022 - 4

" In general, if grass is available, those
are the places I would key on, " Banfield
said. " Herbaceous habitats, grasslands,
meadows, that kind of thing. That should
be your focus if it's there.
" If we have snow deeper than a foot,
then you would want to shift to the open
canopy, browse-type environments, the
kind of places where you would find deer.
Think new timbering operations or recent
cuts. Look for cover like low-hanging
conifers or dense conifer cover. Those
areas typically have lower snow depths
and a little more thermal retention. "
Hunters should then pay attention to
the elk they see. Those with a bull tag, for
example, can waste a lot of time watching
herds of cows.
With the rut over, elk largely segregate
themselves. Bulls hang out with other
bulls, in herds of five or 10, while cows
group up in herds of 30 to 100.
There are exceptions.
" There always seems to be a young
rag-horn bull in with those cows into
December or later, " Banfield said. " It's
like they're training for breeding or something.
At that point they're not getting their
butt kicked by the big herd bull and they're
just happy to be amongst those cows. "
Those young bulls may even, on occasion,
find a cow still waiting to be bred,
he said. But for the most part, hunters
Cover Painting by Doug Pifer
Even before daybreak, January's white backdrop might have
revealed four hulking silhouettes in the open field. But with
a brilliant sunrise now piercing the sky, this impressive group
of bull elk can be seen in full detail by the hunter and guide
sneaking into position for a shot. " Sunrise Bulls " by Doug
Pifer depicts the wintertime action awaiting 10 lucky bull
hunters and 39 cow hunters taking part in the late season
for elk running Jan. 1-8 - an unforgettable experience like
nothing else in Penn's Woods.
will find some " pretty strong separation
between the sexes. "
There's typically plenty of separation
between hunters, too. At least as it applies
to those chasing bulls.
The Game Commission, by design, is
trying to bring bull numbers down a bit,
to improve the herd's bull-to-cow ratio
across the entire elk range, Banfield said.
But it has a goal of providing the highest
quality hunting, too.
That's one reason it added bull tags
to the late season. That allows hunters to
take additional animals without bumping
into one another in the archery and regular
seasons.
" We try to keep the number of bull
hunters to one or two people per zone per
season so there's not heavy competition
between them in each zone, " Banfield
said. " With the additional season, we can
spread that harvest out so that everybody's
got limited competition. You don't have
multiple people going after the same
group of bulls. "
Hunters looking for cow elk are more
likely to encounter others, but even then,
there's lots of room to spread out, Banfield
added.
In all cases, the late season also allows
hunters to address some elk-human conflicts.
In recent years, a number of elk
were killed for crop damage in Elk Hunt
4
Pennsylvania Game News - January 2022

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