County's own version of Santa's reindeer
By Katherine Houstoun CONTRIBUTING WRITER

Defense Supply Center Richmond is home to Cupid and Comet's cousins.

This Christmas Eve, when up on the housetop you hear "click, click, click," your antlered nighttime visitors may be coming from closer than you think. Tucked away off Jefferson Davis Highway resides Chesterfield County's own herd of elk, graciously cared for by Defense Supply Center Richmond (DSCR).

Okay, so maybe elk aren't exactly the same thing as Santa's famed reindeer, but they do belong to the same scientific family, making it perfectly possible for them to stand in on the big night, if the need arose.

"I do hear from the kids that they look like reindeer," said Amy Clement, a public affairs specialist for DSCR. "In the wintertime, they get a thicker coat, and they get more white on them, and the males with the horns…they're just majestic." Elk first arrived in Chesterfield around 1900 courtesy of James Bellwood, a Canadian farmer who bought a 2,300-acre farm here after the Civil War.

"Bellwood moved here from Canada because the winter in Virginia was more temperate, but he missed the Canadian wildlife," explained Clement. "He imported a pair of elk so he could enjoy them."

When the Bellwood family sold the property to the Army in 1941, they made a "gentleman's handshake agreement" that the elk herd would continue to be cared for. The Bellwood elk have been the responsibility of the United States government ever since.

The current herd, which is composed of two bulls, five cows and one male calf, lives on roughly 20 acres of fenced pasture. The young calf, born in June, is six months old, while the veteran of the group, a cow, is 20 years old.

"In the wild, they're lucky if they can reach 15," said Ray Cover, one of three Defense Logistics Agency Enterprise Support employees who care for the elk. "But seeing as this is a domestic herd, they have no threat from hunters or predators, so they can live a good, long life."

Though the elk are used to people, hastening to Cover's truck every morning for their 6:30 a.m. feeding, they are still considered wild. While accustomed to their caretakers, they will shy away from visitors making loud noises or sudden gestures.

The elk make a few loud noises of their own, however, during the mating season, which is in full swing right now. The male, in an effort to attract the females, will unleash high-pitched squeals - a sound that Clement said is unforgettably distinct.

"If you ever heard it once and knew what it was, you'll know immediately if you hear it again," she said. When bulls reach full maturity, which occurs around six years old, they weigh an average of 800 to 1,100 pounds and stand about 5 to 6 feet tall at the shoulder. Cows, who mature a full three years earlier than bulls, weigh an average of 550 pounds and stand about 4 feet tall at the shoulder.

All that bulk requires quite a bit of food - 50 pounds of grain a day for the whole herd, to be exact.

"We feed them horse feed year-round," said Cover. "Mainly in the winter, we supplement that with cracked corn, so they can fatten up, and alfalfa hay, because the pasture tends to become dormant."

At a cost of approximately $300 a month, feeding the elk herd is not cheap, and, with no government funding to help, the DSCR takes care of the cost through employee and visitor donations and an aluminum can recycling program.

"The employees here have a lot of interest in the elk," said Clement. "They'll take a break and go sit on the picnic tables and watch them. We get calls if it's too hot, too cold, and people are concerned. The people here really have adopted them."

Community groups and civic organizations are welcome to tour the installation. Contact the Public Affairs Office at 279-3136 for more information.