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[Parks Canada beaver logo]
[title: parkscanada.gc.ca]

[Resource Conservation Officer carrying a hockey stick looking for El in the forest]

They're somewhat wary of people.

So we'll just move around through the trees and see if there's anymore.

See them?

[collared elk walking through the woods]

[clips of elk within the Banff townsite]

Simon is chasing elk. But not just any elk. He's looking for the ones that live and graze in and around the Banff Townsite, using it as a refuge from predators.

[Interview with Tom Hurd]

There are a few issues around having elk in the townsite. One of the main ones is that they do so well and thrive so well in the townsite that they stop migrating.
They stop becoming part of the natural system around them, they can live almost 12 months a year in subdivisions and on people's front lawns. [Tom Hurd - Wildlife Biologist]

[Elk running across train tracks]

When they're in built-up and developed areas and there's no predators around, their populations tend to grow very fast.

[El k in winter on golf course]

In the late 1990's we would see between 500 and 600 elk in that same zone. We're down to anywhere from half to a third of our peak when conflicts were the highest. [Steve Michel - Human Wildlife Conflict Specialist]

[clips of people approaching elk]

I think the biggest misconception that people have about elk is that they are completely tame animals and that it's almost a zoo setting when they see them in Banff.

[Bull elk sparring in winter]

Elk can be extremely dangerous - even fatal - towards visitors. It's quite shocking when you see how close people approach elk throughout the year.

[Resource conservation specialist demonstrating elk hazing techniques]

Hazing is basically scaring the elk to move them away from a certain area. We can just walk up at the elk and yell at them and make noise to try and scare them off. [Simon Ham - Resource Conservation Specialist]

However an elk is a big intimidating animal - especially a bull elk, so we have some extra tools. We can use the hockey stick. It's just a stick with flagging tape on it.

The flapping of the tape makes enough noise that it unnerves them. And it's also a big stick which makes me feel better if there's a big elk in front of me.

[Resource conservation specialist firing noisemaker to haze elk]

We do a variety of hazing actions and aversive conditioning on elk in and around the Banff townsite to try and encourage them to keep a distance.

[Interview with Steve Michel with footage of elk in the townsite]

But it does tend to be a short-term benefit unless the action is consistent and applied again and again.
In other words the elk will only run so far and then they'll return again to areas of better forage or security to get away from carnivores.

[Elk within the Banff townsite]

We would love to get ourselves out of the business of managing elk on a day-to-day basis. We'd love to get the population to a point where it's manageable and sustainable.
And carnivores are keeping the population in check and the elk are not around the townsite and high-use areas.

[Resource conservation specialist hazing an elk with hockey stick]

We've come a long way in the last 10-15 years. We've got a long ways to go, but I'm optimistic.
My predecessor in this job had a great line: "You can chase an elk anywhere it wants to go", that's really the truth.

Sometimes when we're doing these hazing actions it's almost like running in a great big circle. After an hour or two you can end up almost where you started.