Elk Foraging Response to Vegetation Freeze

[mtnrunner260]

Do elk respond similarly to deer in a freeze or heavy frost changing their dietary preferences?
Deer will stop using certain forbs after the first heavy frost but do elk do the same? I assume grass is leave susceptible to freezing affects?
Basically will elk move down elevation if the grass freezes enough regardless of snow conditions?

 

[Caseknife]

Haven't noticed that they change their food preference due to freeze, but do know that the only thing to drive them to lower country is snow depth, and sometimes that is belly deep.

 

[squirrel]

Only slightly, they will start grazing under canopy cover after the open grass is frozen. And they will dig to eat the bottom of the bunch grass rather than the upper tips. When things get really tough they eat anything that aint white, and will go as low as they can to be in less white. Bottom line is that with no snow cover they will still be at 13K eating the cured grass until that lead cow says "lets go!" They know what awaits them down there.