The Canyon Motel  RV Park
WILDLIFE
Take a Walk in The Canyon Motel & RV Forest
Step serenely into a new adventure. Just stop look and listen. In our pine covered forest, a chorus of birdsong echoes in the tranquil setting that will soon help you relax and appreciate what you might see and experience.
What lives in the tallest tree or under a rotting log? A temperate forest is a layered home - you need to look up, down, and all around to see the residents! Look, listen, and take an inventory of forest plants and animals. Our most frequent visitors to the property are Deer and Elk. But don’t be alarmed if you see a family of Havalena Pig. By the way, they aren't really pigs or even members of the pig family; they just bear a superficial resemblance. Their eyesight is very poor, but they hear all right and have a terrific sense of smell. Don’t forget if you're downwind of them, you might smell them. They have their own unmistakable fragrance.
Our biggest visitors are the ELK. So, take a walk in SKY Park and sit on one of the benches. You might just be amazed at what you see and hear.
More about Elk and Deer
At birth, an elk calf weighs about 35 pounds (16 kg) and can gain two pounds (one kg) a day for the first few weeks. At the start of its first winter, an elk may weigh five times as much as when it was born. Cow elk can weigh more than 500 pounds (225 kg), stand 4-1/2 feet (1.3 m) at the shoulder, and measure 6-1/2 feet (2 m) from nose to rump. An average bull weighs 700 pounds (315 kg), stands 5 feet (1.5 m) at the shoulder, and measures more than 8 feet (2.4 m) from nose to rump.
Each spring, male deer and elk begin growing antlers from bony bumps on their skulls called pedicles. Increasing daylight elevates the level of the hormone testosterone in the animal's blood, which triggers the growth of antlers. Antlers begin as layer upon layer of cartilage that slowly mineralizes into bone. They are light and easily damaged until they completely mineralize in late summer. A soft covering called velvet helps protect the antlers and carries blood to the growing bone tissue. If you look closely at a deer or elk antler, you'll see grooves and ridges on it. These mark the paths of veins that carried blood throughout the growing antlers. The blood stops flowing to the antlers in August, the antlers finish hardening, and the velvet falls off or is rubbed off. The hardened antlers are composed of calcium, phosphorous and as much as 50 percent water. An antler grows faster than any other kind of bone. It can grow up to 1 inch (2.5 cm) a day during the summer.
Biologists are studying antlers in the hopes of learning the secrets of rampant cell growth, secrets that may unlock cures to various forms of cancer. A bull must consume huge amounts of nutrients to obtain the energy and minerals needed to grow antlers as well as the energy to carry them around. Large antlers also identify a bull that is able to defend himself against other bulls and against predators. This information is of great interest to female elk (cows) because they will mate with the strongest, most successful males -- usually the bulls with the biggest antlers.
|
