While emphasis has been placed on the proper relationship with the bear, the same attitude toward other animals will help insure their well-being and your safety. Any attempt to feed a deer or a bear invites injury. Proper conduct in relation to wild animals is so important that regulations now prohibit the feeding, touching, teasing, or molesting of any bear, deer, elk, moose, bison, bighorn, or pronghorn in National Parks. The first three are found in Olympic.
SEEING THE MAMMALS
As long as animals remain completely wild there is little danger from them. The majority of mammal species are small, rare, secretive, or nocturnal, so for these or other reasons they may not easily be seen. They will try to avoid contact with people, and your problem will be to find them and to get close enough to see them well, without disturbing them. To do this, it is necessary to study their habits and to meet them on their own terms.
There is no scarcity of animals in Olympic; but the conditions for seeing even the larger ones, such as elk, deer, and bear, are not as favorable as in Yellowstone National Park, for instance. Olympic has less open country where unobstructed views may be enjoyed, especially in the lowlands. Even in the high country the rolling or rugged topography allows animals to move quickly out of sight behind ridges or rock outcrops.
Do not let these difficulties discourage you. The following suggestions may help you to see some of the more interesting mammals:
The ROOSEVELT ELK is also popularly known as the Olympic elk, because the largest remaining herds of this animal are on the Olympic Peninsula. The number here totals approximately 6,000 animals. These elk, however, still are found in various other parts of their original range, which includes the coastal forests from southern British Columbia to northern California.
The elk is the largest of the American deer family, except the moose. The bulls sometimes weigh as much as 1,000 pounds and the cows, 700. Both sexes have a heavy brown mane and a pale, yellowish rump patch. The bulls carry antlers, which are shed in late winter.
ROOSEVELT ELK IN A LUSH MOUNTAIN MEADOW IN OLYMPIC’S WILDERNESS.
Generally, the elk spend winters in the lowland forests and summers in the higher mountain meadows. Many of them, however, remain in the lowlands even in summer, so that it is possible to see elk in some of the western valleys of the park the year round.