Do Elk Like Pumpkins? 🎃 - The Body Training

Fact checked by Steven Lines, lifelong Hunter and Outdoorsman.

We all know that elk are really big animals. As such, they need a lot of food to keep them going. This will often lead them to local farms and fields where they can graze on the available crops. But what about something like pumpkins? Do elk like pumpkins, and will they eat them?

The answer is yes, elk love to eat pumpkins when they can find them. Whether it is an agricultural field full of pumpkins or some carved pumpkins leftover from the Halloween season, elk will eat a pumpkin at any chance that they can get.

So if you are in the process of planning an elk hunt of your own and it happens to be during the month of October, you might be able to use their love of pumpkins to your advantage. One of the best ways of successfully harvesting an elk is to use their hungry stomachs to your advantage, and pumpkins can be a great way to do this. Continue reading to learn more about pumpkins and elk hunting with them!

In this post, we'll cover:

Are Pumpkins Harmful to Elk?

There are many foods and crops that humans can eat and grow that elk love to eat but aren’t necessarily good for them. For example, if elk overeat fresh alfalfa, it can mess up their entire digestive system. So this begs the question, are your leftover Halloween pumpkins harmful to elk?

Luckily pumpkins are not all that harmful to elk. As long as the elk do not eat pumpkins for every meal for a few days straight, a pumpkin is nothing more than a tasty and nutritious treat that they can enjoy for a few weeks out of the year. The young pumpkin plants can also be great food for the elk as they love to eat on the leaves and shutes as they are coming up out of the ground.

Can You Use Pumpkins to Bait Elk?

Baiting elk is a complicated topic. Across many of the western states where elk naturally reside, there are only a handful of states that actually allow you to bait them legally. These two states are Oregon and Washington. Hunting rules and regulations are always subject to change on a dime as well, so it is important to always be up to date on the current rules and regulations.

So, unfortunately, pumpkins cannot be used to bait elk purposely. A field of growing pumpkins, however, can actually be used to your benefit. As long as the pumpkins are being grown for commercial reasons, you can hunt near and around the field of pumpkins that the elk are attracted to. With a little bit of preparation, you can actually ambush the elk as they travel to and from a field of pumpkins or other crops to feed.

To start to understand whether it is legal or not to bait elk, you can visit https://www.eregulations.com/ to verify any state that you wish and find their hunting regulations. It is very important to do your homework and learn them in order to ensure you do not run into any problems.

Hunting Around Pumpkin Fields

In order to get the most out of an elk’s love of pumpkins, you need to come prepared. First, ensure that you have the proper permission to hunt around the area. Contact local landowners to obtain permission, and have plenty of maps of the area on hand. The last thing that you want to do is accidentally trespass or break the law because you didn’t take the time to know where all of your boundaries and limits are at.

If you can swing it and intend to hunt around a field that the elk are using as a food source, then the best bet is to set up outside of the area and ambush them as they travel to or from the field. This will not only allow you to better survey the area and be more comfortable as you wait, but you will typically have a lot more cover to hide behind. If possible, it is also a great idea to use a treestand or ground blind in order to better conceal yourself.

What Food Do Elk Prefer?

Although elk will eat pumpkins if they have the chance, it is not their preferred food choice. Elk are browsers and prefer to eat grasses and grains instead of large vegetables such as pumpkins. If you have any alfalfa or clover fields, you are more likely to find elk in those areas than in the areas with pumpkins.

When it comes to natural food choices, large open meadows with natural grasses and shrubs tend to hold elk in the early mornings and evenings when they like to feed. But again, elk are opportunistic feeders. If they can find a nearby farm or field to eat crops that taste great, then they will often travel to these areas depending on the time of the year.

Natural food options include grass, shrubs, twigs, leaves, and even the occasional mushroom. If you locate any prime feeding areas, mark them on your maps and remember them for when the hunt rolls around. These types of areas can be gold mines later in the year when food sources start to dwindle, and elk need to travel long distances to find a consistent form of feed.

Final Thoughts

No matter how you like to hunt elk, learning, their feeding habits can be a great and effective way of getting close to the animals and better filling a tag. Whether you are high up in the mountains and need to find natural feeding areas or you have a field of pumpkins nearby that the elk are feeding on, you can use their hungry stomachs to your advantage.

Steven Lines is a hunter and outdoorsman from Safford, Arizona, USA. Since he was a child, he has been hunting and fishing and has over 20 years of outdoor experience. Steven works as a hunting guide in Arizona during his spare time and runs a Youtube channel dedicated to sharing his outdoor adventures with others.

Sources

Was this article helpful?

YesNo