For elk, fortune favours the more cautious

The huge North American ‘elk’ is also known as the ‘wapiti’ (‘white rump’ in the Cree language). It was treated as a race of the red deer until DNA analysis suggested that it be deemed a distinct species. The Japanese sika deer, introduced to Wicklow and Killarney, is a close relative.

The wapiti I encountered in Yellowstone, 40 years ago, were amazingly trusting. You have to stalk red deer to get close to them in Ireland. Their American cousins, however, allowed us to approach and photograph them. The ones in the Canadian Rockies were equally tolerant; they even walked casually past our tent. Nor did the camp fire deter them. Of course they were protected at these locations; had hunting been allowed, things would have been very different. Just how variable wapiti behaviour can be, is explored in a paper just published in the PLOS One journal. The authors, from the University of Alberta, have been studying the responses of these elk to shooting pressure.

We tend to think that deer, and hoofed