If there is one large animal that you are almost guaranteed to see during your visit to Banff National Park it is elk. They are top on the list of animals that many wildlife watchers want to see. Elk are the second largest deer in the park next to moose. Other deer found in the park are caribou, mule deer and white tailed deer.
Elk are also a vital part of Banff's ecology. They are the main herbivore, or plant eater, in the park and in turn a major food source for predators such as wolves.
Elk have always been part of the natural ecology of the park but probably in fewer numbers than we see today. When Banff National Park was created in 1885, only a few elk were seen in the Bow Valley. By 1906, numbers of elk were so low they seemed to have disappeared. But ten years later, elk populations were up naturally, as well as with additional help from the introduction of 235 elk from Yellowstone National Park in Wyoming in 1918-20. Today, elk are the most numerous large animal with close to 350 found in the park; over 200 of them live in the lower Bow Valley close to the town of Banff.