In southern colorado the elk have pushed the peak of the rut back to the last week in september to about oct 15. Some say its the drought while others are saying its because theres no hunters in the field during that time. I'll go with the later. While animals have a very keen sense of what the upcoming wether is in store. I tend to believe its human that have a major impact on wildlife behavior such as rut and feeding times. Many years ago our elk would still be out in the meadows up to 9am during the hunting seasons. About the late eighties and mid ninetys all that changed due to the amount of hunting pressure from more hunters in the field and new atv trails everywhere. Since most hunters today have gotten atv dependent and are road hunting elk in the higher country are out feeding till late in the morning again. I love it keep road hunting in the lower elevations. I'll be up in the wilderness where elk act like they did 20yrs ago.

I believe when it comes to changing a animals habits we are one of the biggest influences out there. Peak rut has moved back in our area and the elk are getting alot of chances to rut without the influences of hunting. I really think its good for the elk population. Heres my reasoning. Used to be a large bull would have a hareem from 15 to 25 cows with him. In the late eighties to mid nineties that changed drastically. Large bulls wouldn't come down into the meadows to breed cows so alot of times you'd see a large bull with about 5 cows up on the mountain and a small raghorn having a hareem of large amounts of cows. Which inturn scientists claim an older bull passes on better genes than a younger bull. But with the lack of hunting pressure in the higher elevations your starting to see the larger bulls claiming back the mass majority of cows. In colorado we are going to start seeing our racks put back on those bulls. Its a very nice feeling in my opinion. Our occurances of opportunity on larger elk have increased in the last 5 years. With more elk and less highcountry hunting we as a state will once again move back in the trophy class of hunting states. As long as the DOW doesn't do anything stupid and kill off the majority of elk we have.