[Music] Welcome everybody to the Elk Country Visitor Center here in Benezette, Pa. which is the heart of Pennsylvania's elk country.

Our mission is to conserve and enhance Pennsylvania's elk country for future generations.

We do that three ways number one through conservation education then habitat improvement for not only the elk but other wildlife species as well, and then permanent land protection.

Here at the Elk Country Visitor Center, there's lots to see lots to learn about and lots to do There's many things to do outdoors, great displays, interactive touch screens, a 4D story theater, a very nice gift shop and much more.

So take a look around enjoy yourself And enjoy Pennsylvania's elk country [Music] We're inside the great room of the Elk Country Visitor Center there are Many things to learn about and lots to check out.

One of those things of course is elk.

Elk were a native species to Pennsylvania long ago.

As a matter of fact, hundreds of years ago, They were found in all parts of pennsylvania.

Their numbers were one time over one hundred thousand.

But due to European expansion, habitat loss and over hunting, the eastern woodland elk, which was the native species were extirpated from our state, which means removed, in the 1860s.

Then we didn't have any elk in Pennsylvania for about 50 years.

Thanks to the Pennsylvania game commission, they were reintroduced to our state from 1913 to 1926.

During that time, they went out west and they live trapped Rocky Mountain Elk and brought them back in several shipments by train to Pennsylvania and then released them.

Since then, they've now grown to about 1,400 animals, and we now have elk roaming and thriving in 10 of our counties in this part of north central Pennsylvania.

[Music] Habitat is key to the success of the health and growth of our Pennsylvania elk herd.

Here at the Elk Country Visitor Center we have many viewing walls where visitors can come and view Pennsylvania elk herd in their natural habitat.

These fields often called herbaceous openings.

They don't happen on their own in Pennsylvania.

These openings are maintained by non-profit wildlife organizations without these food plots or forage plots elk would not have the habitat that they need.

Not only do these herbaceous openings benefit elk, but they also benefit other wildlife species.

Clover is wonderful for honeybees and other pollinators.

A lot of these plants are also enjoyed by turkey, white-tailed deer, songbirds and black bears.

Elk are grazers whereas their cousins the white-tailed deer are browsers.

Elk prefer to eat green plants and elk are large animals so they can eat up to 25 pounds of these green plants that they find a day.

In the winter time, they actually eat a lot of bark they take their lower front incisors and they will strip the bark off of trees.

Some of their favorite barks to eat are aspen, willow and maple.

If you come here to view elk, I would recommend that you come early in the morning and late in the evening because elk are crepuscular, which means they're most active early morning and late evening and that's when visitors see the most elk here at the Elk Country Visitor Center.

[Music] Elk are members of the deer family also known as the cervidae family.

There are actually four members and one is even bigger than elk.

Moose are the largest then elk then caribou and reindeer and then deer.

I'm sure that most of you have seen white-tailed deer.

Their young are called fawns.

They weigh about seven pounds at birth.

They're usually born in May, and they can have up to four fawns each spring.

They're also born with spots.

This is how big a baby elk is when it is born.

It weighs about 35 to 40 pounds at birth.

They also have those spots.

That is a survival adaptation, which helps them to blend in during those first few weeks when they're not very quick on their feet.

So a female elk is known as a cow, and it's going to weigh between 400 and 600 pounds when fully grown.

The males called bulls can weigh up to 900 pounds much larger than their cousins the white-tailed deer.

If we look at their tracks, this is a whitetail deer track, and this is a rocky mountain elk track.

You see a huge size difference.

Now they do both have hooves on their feet which puts them into a special category called ungulates.

any animal that has hooves on its feet is considered an ungulate.

Another thing that people often misreference is that deer and elk have horns.

They do not.

Deer and elk grow antlers, and antlers and horns are very different from one another.

A bison or a goat or a sheep has horns.

They are made out of keratin.

that's what your fingernails and hair are made out of.

antlers, this is an elk antler, are made of solid bone.

Elk antlers are actually the fastest growing bone tissue in the world and when they are growing they can grow up to an inch a day.

While antlers are growing, they're covered in this soft furry material called velvet.

It protects the antler while they're growing.

That velvet starts to dry up and peel off and that's when you see the bulls and bucks rubbing their antlers on trees and shrubs, revealing the hard bony antlers.

these antlers are not used for protection they are actually used during the mating season which is in September and October to establish dominance.

They're showing off for the females and they're also using these antlers to fight with other bulls to see who is the biggest, toughest, strongest and then that bull will have breeding rights to the females.

That's also a really cool time of year to view the elk because they are also communicating with one another during that time of year [Elk call] Not only through body postures but also by making some pretty cool sounds [Music] [Music] Now that you've had a taste of a few of the things we have to offer here, please come and visit in person.

We have educational field trips that you can schedule for all ages weekend programs special events educator workshops and more or if you just happen to be in the area stop by and do a self-guided tour.

Thanks for joining me today and we hope to see you soon in Pennsylvania's Elk Country.

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