They might share the high country with pikas, mountain goats and Steller's jays. Some of these animals benefit directly from elk. For example, magpies may pick parasites off an elk as it grazes, and coyotes catch rodents that are stirred up as an elk paws through snow. Elk and other ungulates can usually live together without much competition. Moose and elk may be in the same riverside thickets, but they usually eat different foods.
Pronghorns eat many of the same foods, but spend most of their time in more open terrain.
Elk and bighorn sheep, however, share the same winter range and may eat the same foods. When food is plentiful, both animals do well. But if the food supply is low, bighorns may not have enough to eat because elk eat much larger quantities of the same scarce vegetation. Deer and elk share the same habitat types and some of the same food. During the summer, they seldom compete because food is usually abundant and elk prefer to feed in the middle of large meadows while deer stay near the edges.