Tule Elk Bull
The tule elk herds of California had virtually disappeared due to intense hunting by 1860, 13 years before the state awarded them complete protection. As a result of this protection and reintroduction programs at a number of locations throughout the state, the population of tule elk steadily grew over the course of the following century.
In the spring of 1978, ten tule elk (two bulls and eight cows) were brought to Point Reyes—where they had been extirpated over a century before—from the San Luis Island Wildlife Refuge near Los Banos. The elk were contained within a temporary, three-acre enclosure to allow for adjustment to their new surroundings. That summer, 6 of the cows bore calves. In the fall, 17 elk were released from the enclosure on Tomales Point to 2,600 acres of open grassland and coastal scrub. By the summer of 1988, the population was at 93 animals. The population census taken in 2000 counted over 400 elk. In 2009, over 440 were counted at Tomales Point, making the the Point Reyes herds one of the largest populations in California.
There are currently two herds of tule elk at Point Reyes. The larger herd is at Tomales Point, a 2,600-acre fenced reserve at the north end of the Seashore. The other is a herd of roughly 100 animals that was transplanted from Tomales Point in 1999 and now roams free in the Limantour wilderness area of the Seashore and above Drakes Beach. The reintroduction of this free-ranging herd is an important step in the ecological restoration in the park.
The project to reintroduce free-ranging tule elk to the Limantour area was made possible by generous grants from:
- Canon USA, Inc., through the National Park Foundation
- The Committee for the Preservation of Tule Elk
- The Leonard X. Bosak and Bette M. Kruger Charitable Foundation
- The Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation
Discover more about the tule elk by reading Tule Elk - Return of a Species (371 KB PDF, Adobe® Acrobat Reader® required to view document), or by visiting our Viewing Tule Elk webpage.
Volunteer to be a Tule Elk Docent during weekends, July through September, at Point Reyes National Seashore.
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