How were large mammals affected by the eruption?
Several large mammals lived in the Mount St. Helens area before the 1980 eruption. These included large herds of majestic elk (Cervus elaphus), black-tailed deer (Odocoileus hemionus columbianus), mountain goat (Oreamnos americanus), American black bear (Ursus americanus), and cougar (Puma concolor). The eruption’s devastating lateral blast and debris avalanche instantly killed all large animals, which could not outrun the flying rock and hot gases and were too big to hide. During search-and-rescue missions in the first few days after the eruption, emergency personnel saw many elk carcasses throughout the blowdown zone. Elk and other large animals survived in the tephra-fall zone where only cool ash and pumice buried the forest floor, but the animals were likely temporarily displaced as they searched for food. Many large mammals are highly mobile and within days of the eruption traveled into the disturbed areas in search of food, which was initially in very low supply. Because these an
