moose in Banff

Saw a moose in the 3rd Vermillion Lake near Banff this morning. They used to be common there 30 years ago - but this is the first one I've seen there in 20+ years.

It could be because all the prescribed burns Parks Canada has been doing has improved the willow and young aspen production in the valley that they prefer.

It's nice to see them back.

Also - The Bald Eagles have been on their nest at the Vermillion Lakes for about 10 days now. They'd better hunker down with the snow and sleet Banff's getting tonight!

Andrew

I haven't seen the moose out at Vermillion Lake yet but I've heard from a few others that they too have seen them on the far end from the highway.

I've seen and even taken pictures of Bald Eagles in nests on telephone polls in the bow valley parkway...

I heard a report a while back that there were only 11 moose between Banff and Lake Louise. From the amount I've seen lately I'd believe it.

Best day ever for us heading to Invermere was this

Elk
Whitetail
Mule
Moose
Black bear
Grizz (Cool)
Bighorn
Goats
I think the only thing we missed was Caribou and Cougar
Lots of moose along that Highway to Radium

Jamie

As family outings, we like to run the Bow Valley Parkway up to Castle Junction and back. Has anyone else noticed a distinct lack of elk? Even in the town, there are hardly any elk anymore. Is this due to preds, or relocation? If the answer is relocation, where are they taking the to?

Hey Tree

A couple of years ago the elk population inside the town of Banff was getting ridiculous, and more people were getting injured by elk every year. Not just the clueless tourists either - these elk were getting so aggressive they'd be chasing kids on their way to school!

Parks tried transplanting some out to the Brazeau, Sask River Crossing, Radium and other locations but these animals quickly sought out schoolyards and front lawns - and only gave other areas the same head-ache. Then the wardens started 'hazing' all elk out of town - chasing them with safeway bags tied to hockey-sticks over their heads (very Canadian looking!).

Many of these townie elk's grandparents had moved into town generations ago to avoid predators and these hazed elk had never seen anything wilder than a poodle. When they were pushed outside of town, it didn't take long for the predator grapevine to light up. The area surrounding the Banff townsite quickly saw more wolves and cougars than ever in history.

These predators basically ate their way through the buffet of 'urban' elk - took them almost 2 years to do it. When the buffet table was cleared, they started to kill each other (wolves killing cougar), a person (cross-country skier by Lake Minnewanka killed by cougar) and moving into town to kill dogs and deer. Since then, the high numbers of wolves seem to have dispersed, although there's still more around that pre-elk experiment - and the the cougar population has stabilized as well - although still very healthy.

The elk population at Banff's periphery is again too high, the area is stripped of every bit of palatable vegetation - and Parks is contemplating doing a cull - as transplanting doesn't work. The optics of wardens shooting elk isn't very good, and there are other complications like getting First Nations involved.

Andrew