It might look like wild Shangri-la to newcomers from Los Angeles%2C Houston or New York City%2C but imagine being a moose or elk having to navigate the deepening gauntlet below. The National Elk Refuge exists because poorly planned development usurped wapiti of winter range and migration corridors more than a century ago. Ecologists say that development and human activity either results in extirpation of wildlife or it leaves creatures becoming %22half-wild%22 meaning they lose their instincts and are no more wild than a white-tailed deer on a golf course. Jackson Hole markets itself as being a last bastion for wildness but can an expanding human footprint and wild animals really co-exist%3F  Photo courtesy EcoFlight and Jackson Hole Conservation Alliance
It might look like wild Shangri-la to newcomers from Los Angeles%2C Houston or New York City%2C but imagine being a moose or elk having to navigate the deepening gauntlet below. The National Elk Refuge exists because poorly planned development usurped wapiti of winter range and migration corridors more than a century ago. Ecologists say that development and human activity either results in extirpation of wildlife or it leaves creatures becoming %22half-wild%22 meaning they lose their instincts and are no more wild than a white-tailed deer on a golf course. Jackson Hole markets itself as being a last bastion for wildness but can an expanding human footprint and wild animals really co-exist%3F Photo courtesy EcoFlight and Jackson Hole Conservation Alliance