In northern California, Roosevelt (Cervus canadensis roosevelti) and Rocky Mountain (C. c. nelsoni) elk occupy a wide variety of habitats over a large extent, including the Marble Mountains Elk Management Unit (MM EMU) within the Klamath Mountains. Dense forest canopy and steep, mountainous terrain present significant challenges for monitoring elk populations using traditional aerial and ground-based methods. These constraints have resulted in inadequate spatial and temporal research and monitoring. To address the need for comprehensive and reliable elk abundance estimates, we implemented a landscape-level remote camera study within the MM EMU. We deployed 180 remote cameras and applied a time-to-event model to estimate elk abundance. This method utilizes the movement rate, area in front of each camera, and leverages the latency time to detection for a given species. Here, we present the use of a recently developed method to non-invasively estimate the abundance of unmarked elk at the landscape-level in northern California. Implementation of this method can provide reliable information to aid management decisions for the continued recreational, ecological, and economic benefits of elk specifically and wildlife in general.

Sara Moriarty-Graves is a wildlife graduate student at Cal Poly Humboldt (formerly Humboldt State University). She is currently working as a Wildlife Biologist for a consulting firm called GHD, in Eureka, California. She has her Bachelor's of Science in Wildlife Management and Conservation from Cal Poly Humboldt, and is has the Associate Wildlife Biologist certification through The Wildlife Society. This research she is presenting on is in collaboration with the California Department of Fish and Wildlife’s Inland Elk Project, where she worked from 2020-2022. Not surprisingly, her hobbies include backpacking, birdwatching, exploring with her dog, and gardening.