<< Back 5/1/02 Three elk in Smokies project found dead SMN Three of the 27 elk released into Great Smoky Mountains National Park last week have been found dead, according to biologists in charge of the experimental Elk Reintroduction project. A preliminary necropsy on the three dead females did not reveal the cause of their death, beyond ruling out predation or poaching. According to Park Wildlife Biologist, Kim DeLozier, the only visible abnormality that veterinarians at the University of Tennessee College of Veterinary Medicine found was that all three animals were very emaciated. All were adult females, a 10-year-old and two 4-year-olds. Two of the cows were pregnant. “But the cause of their emaciation is not yet known,” DeLozier said. “We suspect that the stress of being trailered 2,500 miles, and the handling process associated with disease examinations and radio collaring, or simple social-related stresses, may have contributed to their poor condition. Early indications are that the deaths were not due to capture myopathy which is a general failure of numerous organs.” High quality hay was provided to the elk in abundant amounts while they were confined to the three-acre acclimation pen near the Cataloochee Valley. But when the biologists brought food into the pen all the elk would retreat to furthest recesses of the forested enclosure until the caretakers were gone, DeLozier said. “So we have no idea whether any particular animals were eating or not,” she said. “Sometimes wild animals do not adapt well to being confined and will not eat even though food is available.” Veterinarians are still at work doing microscopic examinations of the brains, tissues and various internal organs searching for signs of any disease or parasites that might have contributed to the deaths. Information from these examinations is expected to come in gradually over a period of several weeks, so park officials say there may not be a firm conclusion for some time, if at all. The remainder of this year’s Canadian-born elk are being radio-tracked daily, but have only been seen on one occasion since the pen gates were opened last Tuesday. “Since their release, the elk have clustered together in three or four groups, all of which are ranging between a few hundred yards from the pen to a limit of about 2.5 miles,” said Jennifer Murrow, a University of Tennessee graduate student who monitors the animals. “But my only visual contact was one sighting two days after they were released. I saw four elk in the Cataloochee meadows. They saw me and fled into the woods and haven’t been sighted since.” Biologists have not been able to observe any interaction between the new arrivals and the 27 elk already roaming in the Cataloochee area since their release in 2001. Typically the 2001 release group is very rarely seen other than out in the open fields, and without being able to watch the individuals from the two groups together, few conclusions can be drawn regarding how they might interact. DeLozier does not consider the recent deaths to be a major setback in the five-year experimental program. “We have always expected that there would be mortalities during the program, particularly as a result of transportation or handling. If anything, we have been pleasantly surprised at how low the mortality has been among adult elk. One of the key questions that this experiment is designed to answer is what level of mortality would occur here and what the causes might be.”