Nature Center to discuss state's elk program

Elk will be the focus of this month's "Nature Center at Night" event from 5 to 8 p.m. Thursday at the Cape Girardeau Conservation Nature Center.

Naturalist-led programs will begin at 5:30 and 7 p.m., according to the Missouri Department of Conservation, and youth and adult groups are welcome to attend the free event.

Angela Pierce, a naturalist for the department, said elk were restored to the Missouri Ozarks in 2011, so it is important for Missourians to learn how biologists are managing the herd.

"We're proud to have brought elk back to our state," Pierce said in a news release. "We'll learn all about elk and how our population is doing."

Plentiful before European settlement, elk disappeared from Missouri by 1865, according to the agency. In July 2010, the Conservation Commission directed the department to reinstate plans to restore elk to a specified zone in the Ozarks with plentiful habitat.

Pierce said the event would make a preview for those who might consider taking the agency's self-guided driving tour at Peck Ranch Conservation Area, where the elk live.

Peck Ranch is near Winona, Missouri. The driving tour is open sunrise to sunset, seven days a week, except during calving season April 1 to July 1, managed deer hunts, fall firearms deer season and if roads are closed because of bad weather.

Autumn is a great time to take the tour, the department said, because elk bulls are bugling to attract harems of cows.

For more information on programs at the Cape Girardeau Conservation Nature Center, go online to mdc.mo.gov/CapeNatureCenter. For more information about the self-guided driving tour at Peck Ranch, go online to mdc.mo.gov/node/15985%20.

Pertinent address:

2289 County Park Drive, Cape Girardeau, Mo.