My dad tells me stories of when he first got into farming seeing an elk was rare. He recieved no crop damage from them as they were strictly a bush animal. Now times have changed quite a bit as he wakes up to find 20 or so in his yard some mornings and loses 60acres 100% damage crop to then each year. The wildlife dept here says that all of the elk found in my area were within the first 1/2-3/4 mile of the bush when they fly it. SO thier patterns have definatley shifted over the years. Also elk predomintly found in our area which is heavily forested with breaks of farmland but they have exploded in the west part of the province as well as the south were it is more open farmland with draws and coulees. Our elk pop here is estimated at around 14000 and growing at 1000 a year. Down in the south the really took off in some areas because they were not allowed to be hunted and if they were it was draw only. A few good years for the elk and they had a depredation hunt this jan-feb tis year to knock them down a peg. Never heard of this ever happening in the past. Numbers are really taking off which is good for the hunters bad for the farmers.
as for swapping a hunt take a number lol. I have so many people on here i would love to take out but it is not legal as i am not a outfitter. All i can do is post pics and tell ya stories.