Tule Elk: One of California’s Largest Land Mammals

The Tule Elk State Natural Reserve protects a small herd of tule elk, an endemic California subspecies of elk once hunted nearly to extinction. Tule elk once dominated the deer and pronghorn population that lived in the San Joaquin Valley. Estimated at more the half a million animals before 1849, tule elk originally ranged from Shasta County in the north to the base of the Tehachapi Mountains in the south, and from west of the Sierra Nevada to the central Pacific Coast.

California's once lush Central Valley grasslands provided ideal habitat for the tule elk. During and after the Gold Rush, demand for elk meat to eat increased. By the time elk hunting was banned by the State Legislature in 1873, the tule elk were believed to be extinct. Cattle rancher Henry Miller led a movement to protect the remaining tule elk by providing 600-acres of open range (near today's reserve). In 1932, 953-acres for a tule elk reserve were purchased in Kern County near the town of Tupman.

This fun, interactive, virtual adventure will feature the tule elk's history, habitat, biology, what characteristics define a mammal, and how the tule elk were brought back from the brink of extinction.