User:Delvethedragon/Alabama elk experiment

A herd of elk entrusted to a local landowner in Anniston, Alabama

The Alabama elk experiment was a failed attempt to reintroduce elk to their original range in Alabama during the early 20th century. The United States Department of the Interior agreed to accord an allotment of elk to the state of Alabama if the state legislature would enact adequate protections for the species into law, and in early 1915, protections were successfully passed, and an allotment of elk was granted.

A herd of fifty-five Rocky Mountain elk was captured in Yellowstone National Park and transported in sleighs to Gardiner, Montana, where they were loaded onto cars and shipped by freight. They arrived in Alabama in February the next year and were apportioned into four nearly equal herds that were entrusted to local landowners in north-central Alabama.

Despite optimism that the reintroduction would be successful—with the local Department of Game and Fish believing population numbers would increase rapidly, akin to a previous white-tailed deer introduction—by 1922 all of the elk had died, including a number of calves that were born after the project began. All elk succumbed to poaching and various natural causes.

History

Elk are known to have historically been present in parts of northern Alabama, but the species was extirpated by European settlers.

[expand this later]

Reintroduction

Proposal of reintroduction

[BGP, USDA proposes reintroduction of elk to the Game and Fish Commissioner of Alabama; Alabama passes legislature to make elk reintroduction happen]

Capture of elk and transportation to Alabama

[discuss capture of elk and their transportation]

Strategy and management

[who the elk went to, where, and how they were managed]

Outcome

[outcome of reintroduction attempt, challenges, and causes of failure]