History of the Tejon Ranch Elk

December 15, 2011

Question: I live in Stallion Springs, a rural community about 15 miles west of Tehachapi, and we have bands of elk that roam in the neighborhood. They move freely between the adjoining huge Tejon Ranch and the neighboring Bear Valley Springs community. I have been told by a born-and-raised Tehachapi native that the elk escaped in the early 1970s from a high fence operation located in the nearby Cummings Valley. Are they Rocky Mountain Elk or the Roosevelt subspecies? How does the Tejon Ranch conduct hunts for these elk when we never see anything in the hunting regulations about this? And, since their rutting season usually runs from late October into November in other areas, why do these animals go into the rut from the end of August to the very beginning of October? Furthermore, deer hunt zone D10 is all on private land and that zone is open to draw. Thanks for any light you can shed on these questions. (Ron A., Stallion Springs)

Answer: In 1966, the Department of Fish and Game (DFG) issued a permit for the release of 300 Rocky Mountain Elk imported from Yellowstone National Park into a fenced compound on a game farm ranch in southern Kern County. By 1967, 290 elk had been shipped from Yellowstone, but due to the stress of transport and possibly other causes, only 277 survived to be released inside the ranch enclosure. Many elk died within the enclosure from several diseases brought on by stress induced by confinement, as well as a new and different diet. Later that year elk began escaping because of the lack of fence maintenance. It is not known exactly how many animals escaped to the wild (California Fish and Game, 61(4):239-241. 1975).

According to DFG’s Elk and Pronghorn Coordinator, Joe Hobbs, approximately 200 animals currently reside in this area in an around the Tejon Ranch. Elk game farming is no longer allowed in California. The Tejon Ranch runs their elk hunting through the DFG’s Private Lands Management Program (PLM). In exchange for conducting habitat improvement projects on their land that benefit wildlife, landowners can receive special PLM elk tags each year. The numbers and types of tags correspond to the population level of elk and the current conditions on the ranch. Elk in this area may have an earlier rutting season due to the warmer weather in Southern California.