A study of migration patterns among Yellowstone National Park elk indicate they're smart enough to move onto safe land during hunting season but not smart enough to flee from wolves in their immediate territory.

Conversely, the elk didn't stir too much when approached by wolves; they did little to avoid interaction with their natural adversaries.

The lesson: elk are smart enough to avoid people during hunting season, but not smart enough to avoid wolves the rest of the time.

The bigger lesson: you can't rely on hunting to manage the elk population, because they're smart enough to flee the hunters.

The biggest lesson: using a relatively small sample of elk -- 43 GPS-tagged elk were studied over two winters -- may not yield results with usable information.

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