Oregon’s 4,621 elk records cover nearly the whole state, but they tell two stories split by the Cascade crest. West of the mountains, Roosevelt elk work the coast range, with Clatsop County alone accounting for 1,411 records and heavy showings in Tillamook and Lincoln counties and through Siuslaw National Forest. East of the crest, elk range the pine and lodgepole forests of Deschutes National Forest, the Ochoco country, and the northeast corner’s Union, Wallowa, and Baker counties.
Two kinds of elk on one map
Roosevelt elk, the larger and darker of Oregon’s two forms, live out their lives in dense coastal rainforest and second growth, never straying far from cover, and Jewell Meadows Wildlife Area in the coast range foothills holds some of the heaviest single-site counts in the state record. East-side elk use more open forest, burns, and bunchgrass meadows, shifting elevation between summer and winter range. Both are herd animals built around the same split: cows and calves in groups, bulls alone or in bachelor bands for much of the year.
A calendar with no quiet season
Reports come in every month, cresting modestly in June rather than showing the deep winter trough of harsher states. That fits an animal that stays on its feet all winter, and a coast range where snow rarely forces long migrations. Late May and June is calving season, when cows slip away from the herd to drop calves and will charge a person or dog that comes too close; September brings the rut, when bulls bugle and turn aggressive even though record counts dip then.
Status in Oregon
NatureServe ranks elk S5, Secure, in Oregon, against a global rank of G4. The species is native to its Oregon range, and USGS NAS does not list it as nonindigenous in the state.
Full species profile
