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| How Will Global Warming Affect Elk and their Habitat? |
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Elk are likely to benefit significantly from global warming in North America due to the increase in shrub and grass cover that will follow the more frequent forest fires. Moreover, they will have more habitat at both higher elevations and higher latitudes, as large expanses of alpine turn into subalpine so greatly favored by elk. Cold boreal forests, currently shunned by elk, are expected to turn into elk-friendly deciduous forest, grassy slopes and meadows. Since elk are very adaptable and highly mobile, they will survive great changes in their surroundings, as long as they can be protected from excessive mortality due to man or predators. However, elk are likely to lose some habitats they currently occupy due to excessive drying and lack of water—like areas in California and Arizona. But on average, this loss would be minuscule in comparison to the expansion of their habitat in the Rockies and northern Canada and Alaska.
—Valerius Geist, renowned elk biologist |
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