In the story of the United States, the calamity that befell the buffalo at the hands of pioneer settlers in the mid- and late 1800s is well known: Tens of millions of the animals—lifeblood of Indigenous peoples on the Great Plains—were hunted almost to extinction.

Less well known is what was happening at the same time in California, the only home of the continent’s smallest elk—the tule elk—long a source of food and clothing for the Indigenous Coast Miwok people. Named for the tule reeds that once covered miles of streamside habitat—and distinctive for their shaggy neck ruffs, white rumps, big eyes, and loud “bugles” bulls make to show their availability during mating season—tule elk are estimated to have numbered