This story first appeared at Front Porch.
DENVER | No one knows how she got there, but visitors, volunteers, and staff at the Rocky Mountain Arsenal National Wildlife Refuge are happy a lone elk cow has made a home there.
The elk is often seen mingling with male bison, a surprising sight on the Wildlife Drive through the refuge.
“Even though this is a range that elk traditionally would have inhabited, she’s just kind of rare, and that rarity makes her special,” said Sara Metzer, visitor services manager for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, which runs the refuge. “She’s now a little bit more visible because she’s hanging out with some bison buddies.”
The elk was first spotted in May 2022 by volunteer board member Montoya Whiteman. She had just entered the Wildlife Drive when she saw the animal. “I couldn’t believe what I was seeing. I braked, pulled off the road, grabbed my camera, and zoomed in. Sure enough, it was a cow elk,” she said.
As the animal disappeared into a treeline, Whiteman called Federal Wildlife Officer Mindi Patterson. “Hey Mindi,” she said, “there’s a cow elk out here.”
At first, Patterson told Whiteman that what she probably saw was a large deer. But then the two met on the drive, and Whiteman showed Patterson photos. “Yes,” Patterson said, “that’s a cow elk.” Patterson later confirmed with administrators and staff that the sighting was real.
“It became a mystery,” Whiteman said. “No one knew how a cow elk made it into the refuge, which is surrounded by fencing.”
The mystery continued as sightings of the elk became rare during the following months and years. “There were moments when I think many of us wondered if she was still there,” Whiteman said.
Whiteman finally saw the elk again last year, still wondering where she came from. “Over the years, I’ve often thought about her journey. It’s possible she came from the eastern prairie or even the mountains,” she added.
Metzer sees the elk story as a reminder about the history of elk inhabiting the High Plains, where the refuge is located. Development and growth have pushed herds west toward the mountains. “I think the thing that’s unique about this particular individual is that we’re a little bit further east in the metro area,” she said.
Whiteman named the elk TnT, short for Tall and Tan. The animal has caught the eye of visitors, who often hold up their phones with photos at the refuge visitor center and ask, “What is that?”
Metzer said arsenal guests are often the eyes and ears of the refuge. “They really amplify our ability to see what’s going on out on the refuge, which is fun because they capture photographs. They’re often in the right place at the right time.”
If visitors are in the right place now, Metzer said, they might catch sight of the elk hanging out with the refuge’s bison, that travel in a larger group, making it easier to spot the elk than when she was “running solo” during the initial years.
But even now, the elk is not always visible. “It’s amazing how a 500-plus-pound animal can hide on the refuge,” Metzer said. “With 16,000 acres, she has the ability to slip in and out (of view). I think the sightings by either visitors or staff are sporadic here and there, depending on where she’s hanging out.”
Whiteman, who drives to the arsenal often, said she is grateful TnT is still there: “Her presence was not planned, not explained, and not easily accounted for, yet there she was. Not symbolic in a grand way, just real. In that sense, her story isn’t mystery alone but persistence. Life finding space where it wasn’t designed to be”
And Metzer said the elk’s story is also “an example of resilience.”
“It can be rough in the wild for an animal, and it’s hard sometimes for visitors to appreciate that we’re not managing these animals as pets,” she said. “This isn’t a zoo facility, where they would have access to veterinary care. These are wild animals, and the fact that she’s here, the fact that she keeps cropping up, the fact that she looks to be in good body condition and healthy, shows her resilience,” she added.
Metzer said the elk has always been free to leave. “Animals do come and go from the refuge from time to time. Many of them end up staying. She has the ability, just as she found her way here, to leave any time if she would like. And she continues to make Rocky Mountain Arsenal her home.”
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