Tule Elk

Tule elk are a unique subspecies of elk found only in California. Once nearly driven to extinction in the 1800s, today about 6,000 survive across the state. Point Reyes National Seashore is currently home to around 700 individuals, making it the best place in the world to see these magnificent animals in the wild.

Quick Facts About Tule Elk

• Native only to California: Tule elk once roamed most of the state before being hunted nearly to extinction in the 1800s.
  
  
• Population today: about 6,000, divided among small herds across California.
  
  
• Largest herd: at Point Reyes National Seashore, just 20 miles north of San Francisco.
  
  
• Threats: fences, drought, competition with cattle ranches, and deadly government-backed “management” plans.
  
  
• Why they matter: Each elk is a unique, beautiful, and irreplaceable individual. Additionally, Tule elk are members of a keystone species — when they thrive, so do the grasslands, coastal prairies, birds, and other wildlife-supporting habitats. 

Tule Elk Issues

Why Tule Elk Died Behind Fences

For decades, Tule elk at Point Reyes National Seashore were trapped behind an 8-foot fence built only to benefit private cattle ranchers outside the so-called “Reserve,” a 2,600-acre fenced-off area inside the 71,000-acre park. 

Between 2012 and 2025, over 475 Tule elk died slow, excruciating, and entirely preventable deaths from thirst and hunger because their access to food and water during droughts was blocked by the fence.

Nearly 500 Tule elk have died behind the 2-mile-long cattle fence at Point Reyes since 2012.

The Ranching Industry Milks Point Reyes for Millions in Public Funding

The fence was built for only one reason: to prevent wild elk from grazing freely in this national park. Cattle ranchers wanted them confined, away from their farms on leased public parkland — all to turn a profit at taxpayer expense. 

Ranchers were bought out decades ago — paid the equivalent of $350 million in today’s taxpayer dollars — yet never left. Instead, they lobbied politicians to secure sweetheart, under-market lease deals and extended their stay for decades.

Today, the vast majority of ranchers continue to enjoy huge, hidden, ongoing federal subsidies without which these businesses would collapse,

Who Was Here First — Elk or Ranchers?

Ranchers repeatedly claim their operations are “historic.” In truth, Tule elk and other wild animals were here for thousands of years before European settlers brought cattle and killed tens of thousands of wild animals. 

Ranching is a relatively recent, destructive industry. Tule elk, along with wolves and grizzlies, were made extinct to install dairy and “beef” ranches. Today, ranchers continue to profit at the expense of their captive, abused cows, who, along with wild elk (and ecosystems), pay the ultimate price with suffering and death.

Cattle Ranching: A Brutal Business

Even the “best” “small, family, organic” ranches at Point Reyes exploit and kill cows, forcibly impregnating them and slaughtering them at a fraction of their natural lifespan. 

Ranches Are The Biggest Point Reyes Polluters

For over a century, dairy and beef ranchers have been and continue to be this national park’s major polluters of land, waterways, and the atmosphere, with massive carbon and methane emissions.

Thousands of beef and dairy cows coat the land with many millions of pounds of cow manure and urine. Winter rains wash this manure into the park’s streams and bays, contaminating the water that all the park’s animals need.

These beef and dairy operations are also the park’s greatest air polluters. Thousands of cows emit more greenhouse gases (GHGs) — especially methane and nitrous oxide — than all the tailpipe emissions from the park’s approximately 1.5 million annual visitor vehicles. Minor improvements like methane digesters or seaweed feed additives only make a few percentage points difference to the massive GHGs of these commercial operations.

Pollution & Public Health Risks

Cattle ranches have prevented Point Reyes from becoming the national park it was originally intended to be. In Defense of Animals helped fund surface water testing that revealed severe contamination from cattle manure, including harmful E. coli, enterococci, and fecal coliform bacteria. Rain washes millions of pounds of cow manure into streams, bays, and the Pacific Ocean, threatening the lives of wild animals and human visitors alike.

Point Reyes has degraded from a national park unit into a cesspool.

300 Additional Miles Of Deadly Fences

Ranching operations harm wild animal populations by damaging their life-supporting ecosystems. Additionally, hundreds of miles of wire boundary fencing around ranch lands restricts and alters the behavior of wild animals like deer, coyotes, and rabbits across thousands of acres of these publicly owned ranch lands.

The fences defining the 28,000 acres of Point Reyes ranchlands also close them off to public access. Approximately 300 additional miles of wire fences, ranging from 3 to 6 feet in height, can also directly injure and even kill the park’s black-tailed deer and Tule elk, who can be injured or killed by getting horrifically ensnared in fence wires, including barbed wires, while trying to jump over them.

Which Famous Dairy Brands are Involved in Harming Animals at Point Reyes?

Fundamentally, ranches always cause harm by restricting wild animals, polluting land and water, and directly causing suffering to their “farm” animals. 

At Point Reyes National Seashore, organic products are sold to unwitting consumers under expensive, sought-after “name” labels, including Clover Sonoma, Straus Family Creamery, Nicasio Valley Cheese Company, and Cowgirl Creamery.

Fortunately, there’s a simple solution:  don’t support ranching by buying dairy and “beef” (cow) products!

What Next for Tule Elk?

The fate of the iconic California Tule elk is in the hands of animal and environmental advocates like In Defense of Animals, and in the hands of you, an important part of the public who cares about them. In Defense of Animals is now leading the fight to remove all cattle ranches (and their bovine victims) from Point Reyes, which has not yet been accomplished. Whether “grass-fed” or “pasture-raised,” there is no such thing as ecologically beneficial ranching.

What We’re Doing to Save Tule Elk

In Defense of Animals continues to lead the fight to protect Tule elk. To get where we are today, with the elk “Reserve” partially dismantled, more Tule elk freer than ever before, and with thousands of cows being moved out of the park, we have employed an array of tactics, which we will continue with your help:

• Delivered emergency relief — Supported activists who brought life-saving water to elk during droughts.
  
  
• Raised national awareness — Secured coverage in the Los Angeles Times, San Francisco Chronicle, ABC7 News, CBS, KPIX 5, and more.
  
  
• Mobilized star power — Partnered with Peter Coyote, Lily Tomlin, Jane Wagner, Kaley Cuoco, Alexandra Paul, Bonnie-Jill Laflin, and Louie Psihoyos to spotlight the elk’s plight.
  
  
• Organized grassroots power — Led rallies, demonstrations, protests, a memorial, and town halls to keep Tule elk freedom on the public agenda.
  
  
• Exposed ranch pollution — Funded scientific water testing that revealed cattle waste contamination and staged hazmat suit demonstrations and speak-outs to urge action.
  
  
• Demanded accountability — Mobilized public comment to expose the National Park Service’s role and complicity with ranchers in lethal Tule elk mismanagement.
  
  
• Forced policy change — Won approvals from the California Coastal Commission and National Park Service to begin fence removal. We accomplished something remarkable: changing a 46-year-old federal policy of keeping hundreds of Point Reyes elk inside the park’s deadly fenced “Reserve.”
  
  

What You Can Do to Save Tule Elk

You can be part of this historic, ongoing campaign for Tule elk freedom and making Point Reyes a haven for all wild animals, as it was always intended to become:

• Join In Defense of Animals — Your membership sustains campaigns that win Tule elk freedom and protect wild animals everywhere.
  
  
• Take action today — Sign alerts that tell decision-makers to protect Tule elk and remove ranching from Point Reyes.
  
  
• Be their voice — Watch and share our videos and latest news to spread awareness among friends and family.
  
  
• Stay connected — Sign up for In Defense of Animals news. Share your address to find out about local protests and events.
  
  
• Choose compassion — By leaving meat and dairy off your plate, today and every day, you immediately reduce the funding of the very same cow-killing industry that pushed Tule elk to the brink. Every plant-based meal is a vote for wild animals and for freedom and compassion for domesticated animals, too.