Backcountry
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Heard about this through the grapevine... pretty wierd story, not about the elk, but about the landowner being such a curmudgeon.
http://www.rgj.com/news/stories/html/2004/...ws&sp7=umbrella
Locked elk die as landowner keeps officials away
OGDEN, Utah — Two large bull elk who locked horns in Eastern Nevada’s Grouse Creek area died after a landowner refused access to biologists who wanted to save the animals by cutting them apart.
The incident, reported Saturday by the Standard-Examiner in Ogden, Utah, started last Monday as the bulls sparred in northeastern Nevada less than 10 miles from the Utah and Idaho state lines.
A caller told the Nevada Department of Wildlife that two elk were locked together, common when bulls fight during the annual rut. A crew of biologists from Elko, arrived and saw the elk thrashing and flailing behind a fence signed “No Trespassing.”
Officials found the landowner, Karl “Bud” Bedke, and asked for permission to enter the land and try to free the elk. It was refused.
“You can imagine the conversation that occurred,” said Jerry Smith, game warden supervisor for Nevada’s eastern region. “But when a private property landowner says, ’No you cannot trespass on my land,’ for whatever reason, we cannot do it.”
Officials tried unsuccessfully to get a court order. Under Nevada law, if a poacher had shot the two elk, he would have been subject to a felony charge and a fine of up to $10,000 for each animal. But nothing comparable happened here.
“In the rut, they lock horns quite often, and quite often they get apart. That’s a natural part of being an elk,” Smith said.
“There was no crime … nothing had happened that trumped private property rights.”
The first elk died Tuesday afternoon. The second, antlers still locked to his sparring partner, survived until about noon Wednesday.
Biologists looked on from the county road until the last elk lay down in the middle of Goose Creek and died.
Officials were allowed access a few hours later. Smith and another officer removed the heads — each was a six-point bull — and moved them to the Elko office.
Bedke did not return the newspaper’s calls seeking comment.
A Nevada program allows landowners who prove loss from elk depredation to sell hunting tags at a price set by the landowner. Landowners can also apply for compensation when elk or other wildlife damage crops. More than $35,000 was paid out to landowners for elk damage last year. Bedke didn’t apply for either program, officials said.
Without knowing the animals’ injuries or how long they had been locked, Smith said it’s impossible to know whether cutting them apart would have saved them.
“But you do know the ultimate fate of them if you do not separate them,” Smith said.
http://www.rgj.com/news/stories/html/2004/...ws&sp7=umbrella
Locked elk die as landowner keeps officials away
OGDEN, Utah — Two large bull elk who locked horns in Eastern Nevada’s Grouse Creek area died after a landowner refused access to biologists who wanted to save the animals by cutting them apart.
The incident, reported Saturday by the Standard-Examiner in Ogden, Utah, started last Monday as the bulls sparred in northeastern Nevada less than 10 miles from the Utah and Idaho state lines.
A caller told the Nevada Department of Wildlife that two elk were locked together, common when bulls fight during the annual rut. A crew of biologists from Elko, arrived and saw the elk thrashing and flailing behind a fence signed “No Trespassing.”
Officials found the landowner, Karl “Bud” Bedke, and asked for permission to enter the land and try to free the elk. It was refused.
“You can imagine the conversation that occurred,” said Jerry Smith, game warden supervisor for Nevada’s eastern region. “But when a private property landowner says, ’No you cannot trespass on my land,’ for whatever reason, we cannot do it.”
Officials tried unsuccessfully to get a court order. Under Nevada law, if a poacher had shot the two elk, he would have been subject to a felony charge and a fine of up to $10,000 for each animal. But nothing comparable happened here.
“In the rut, they lock horns quite often, and quite often they get apart. That’s a natural part of being an elk,” Smith said.
“There was no crime … nothing had happened that trumped private property rights.”
The first elk died Tuesday afternoon. The second, antlers still locked to his sparring partner, survived until about noon Wednesday.
Biologists looked on from the county road until the last elk lay down in the middle of Goose Creek and died.
Officials were allowed access a few hours later. Smith and another officer removed the heads — each was a six-point bull — and moved them to the Elko office.
Bedke did not return the newspaper’s calls seeking comment.
A Nevada program allows landowners who prove loss from elk depredation to sell hunting tags at a price set by the landowner. Landowners can also apply for compensation when elk or other wildlife damage crops. More than $35,000 was paid out to landowners for elk damage last year. Bedke didn’t apply for either program, officials said.
Without knowing the animals’ injuries or how long they had been locked, Smith said it’s impossible to know whether cutting them apart would have saved them.
“But you do know the ultimate fate of them if you do not separate them,” Smith said.
