Random (But Interesting) Facts About Elk

Average Weight
Adult bull elk: 700 lb. Cow elk: 500 lb. Bull elk antlers: 40 POUNDS

Top 10 Elk States [by elk population]
Colorado 200,000 Montana 150,000 Idaho 140,000 Oregon 106,000 Wyoming 85,000 Washington 60,000 Arizona 55,000 Utah 50,000 New Mexico 45,000 California 7,500

World-Record American Typical Elk Stats
Score: 442 5/8 B&C points Dimensions: 6×7 Length of main beams: 56 2/8 inches Inside spread: 47 4/8 inches Year taken: 1968 Location: White Mountains, Arizona Hunter: Alonzo Winters

Elk Locomotion
In 1902, President Theodore Roosevelt observed that

“WAPITI HAVE A SLASHING TROT, WHICH THEY CAN KEEP UP FOR INFINITE TIME OVER ANY KIND OF COUNTRY. ONLY A GOOD PONY CAN OVERTAKE THEM.”

Elk can run as fast as 40 miles an hour and have been known to outsprint horses in short footraces. They can jump 8 feet vertically

Elk Ivory
Crow Indian wedding dresses are known to have been adorned with as many as 500 elk canine teeth.

Many thousands of years ago, elk grew long, pointed tusks that protruded from their upper jaws. Over millennia, these receded, eventually becoming canine teeth, whose ivory-like quality has long made them prized possessions.

By the 1930s, thousands of elk were still being slaughtered for their canine teeth to make jewelry, watch fobs, and other ornaments.

Elk on eBay
Elk antler toilet tissue holder: $14.99 7×6 Roosevelt elk antlers: $128.38 Five spike elk antlers: $29.00

The annual Jackson Boy Scout Antler Auction at the National Elk Refuge in Jackson, Wyoming, typically sells about 10,000 lb. of elk antlers in two hours.

Lewis and Clark and Elk
The Corps of Discovery killed 374 elk on their trip. Lewis and Clark made 570 references to elk in their journals, which were bound in elk hide.