BANFF – While two elk that fell through the ice in as many weeks were successfully plucked from the Bow River in Banff, several other elk were found drowned last week.
In two separate dramatic rescues a week apart, a female calf that fell through the dangerously thin ice was pulled to safety by Parks Canada’s highly trained wildlife team on April 2, while an adult female that crashed through the ice three times was dragged to shore on April 9.
Wildlife experts also recovered the carcasses of three adult female elk and one spike male that were found dead in the river near town over the past week, including most recently on April 14 and 15 near the canoe docks.
Blair Fyten, a human-wildlife coexistence specialist with Banff National Park, said it has been an emotionally draining week or two for the staff who rescue the animals or unfortunately find them dead.
“Ungulate hair is buoyant because it’s hollow and so it keeps them floating for a while, but their limbs get so cold and they get hypothermic,” said Fyten.
“Once you get them on the ice, they simply don’t have any strength or probably no feeling in their legs, so they can’t stand on them and it takes them a long time to recover.”
In the most recent successful rescue on April 9, a female elk crashed through the ice three times after she was initially pulled to safety.
After getting a call about a group of elk in Central Park trying to get to the recreation grounds on the south side of the Bow River, wildlife staff tried to gently herd the elk towards the canoe docks when one cow elk cut out from the rest of the group and fell through the ice.
Trained and experienced in ice rescue, staff geared up with dry suits and got the stressed elk out of the river in relatively short order. At one point, a channel was cut in the ice to make it easier to bring the elk to shore.
“It took her a little while to recover, but when she got up, she ran back out on the river and fell in a second time,” said Fyten, noting the stressed elk had few options for an escape route with a crowd of onlookers on shore.
“By now there was a pretty big crowd forming so we put up closure tape to keep the public back … she needed a way to get out, but she was probably stressed and probably thought it was safer on the river,” he added.
“She was extracted the second time and pulled up right close to shore, and once she got back up, we tried to haze her off, but she got really aggressive and came at the staff, and then she proceeded to fall in the river a third time.”
After safely being pulled out of the frigid waters again, the elk stood on the river for several hours until early evening.
“It was almost dark and then finally she left the river and went onto the shore,” said Fyten. “She eventually moved on and joined the herd down at the rec grounds and was doing fine.”
Ian Adamson, who witnessed the event unfold, said it was impressive watching the rescue, noting a brave Parks Canada rescuer stood on the thin ice to prevent the elk from jumping back into the water again, where it could inevitably die.
“The idea was she was trying to get back to the herd, but she was lost and confused and was in a bit of shock,” said Adamson.
“Eventually there was a weird standoff where one of the rescuers had to stand on the ice. It was kind of brave of them to stay as a human deterrent.”
This dramatic elk rescue followed another save of a young calf from the river near the Muskrat Street pedestrian bridge a week earlier on April 2.
Within 45 minutes of the elk falling into the river, the dedicated wildlife team had safely pulled the stressed young elk from the frigid river, dragged it onto shore in a toboggan and wrapped it in warm blankets.
“We’d brought a horse trailer down just in case the calf couldn’t get up,” said Fyten.
“We were going to load it into the horse trailer and bring it back to the compound and put it in our wash bay where it’s warm and hopefully would recover more quickly, but we didn’t have to do that.”
The calf took about an hour to recover on shore under the warm blankets.
“We laid it on the bank on a dry spot and got it covered up in blankets and it took her over an hour to recover, which is kind of normal, and eventually she stood up, and headed towards where the herd had gone,” said Fyten.
“It got fairly aggressive toward us and just was holding its ground, so we thought it best to leave it instead of having it run across the river again. We left it on-site close to the Banff Avenue bridge and eventually that elk wandered off and found the herd.”
This rescue, however, was made more difficult and challenging by a member of the public on shore screaming and yelling at the rescuers that they weren’t going about the rescue the right way.
“Obviously the public’s concerned, but we don’t really need them yelling in our face at the time or getting in our way,” said Fyten.
“So what we’ve had to do in the last couple of situations is take our closure tape and close it off and keep the public back so we don’t have to deal with that.”
Fyten said safety of rescue personnel is first and foremost for the team, followed by public safety and the safety of the elk.
“When we come upon these scenes, we assess the site and figure out which side of the river is best to get out and what safety concerns we have with the current and undertow,” he said.
“We’re experienced and trained and we know what we’re doing.”
One of the main reasons the wildlife team mounts these elk river rescues each spring is so members of the public don’t take matters into their own hands.
“On the calf one, a member of the public said they could have got some friends and chopped a hole in the ice to get the elk out, but we don’t want the public doing that,” said Fyten.
“There’s a reason why that elk fell in; it’s because the ice was thin, and so if the public are out there trying to help, well, they’re just going to fall in and it’s going to be an even bigger situation.”
Meanwhile, elk that are found dead in the river each spring are removed for public safety reasons, particularly because of the potential of the carcasses drawing carnivores like bears or wolves closer to town in search of an easy meal.
In spring 2013, Parks Canada closed an area about 500 metres upstream from the townsite on the Bow River after grizzly bear 122, also known as The Boss, was feasting on one of eight elk that had died after falling through the ice.
“We closed that area and let him eat on that carcass, but if we had a carcass laying by the canoe docks and it attracted a carnivore like a bear or wolf, we would have a very different situation to deal with because of people in the area,” she said.
“Elk falling through the ice probably happens in nature fairly frequently and nature plays itself out, but because these are elk that have fallen through and are close to town, get reported, get sighted, we do respond to these highly visible ones.”
Parks Canada asks that elk sightings in the Banff townsite be reported to 403-762-1470.
“The river has opened up through town now, so that should be about the last of the elk falling through the ice,” said Fyten.
