Wyoming factors to its rising elk herd and elevated entry on personal land, whereas Idaho officers say final season was ‘a little bit of a head scratcher’
Wyoming is house to a rising elk herd of greater than 100,000 animals. {Photograph} by Addy Falgoust / NPS
Wyoming and Idaho may be next-door neighbors, however the two states noticed vastly totally different elk harvest numbers and success charges throughout the 2023 looking season. Elk hunters in Wyoming set a brand new document final fall by harvesting almost 29,000 elk, with greater than 50 p.c of these hunters (each resident and nonresidents) discovering success, based on the most recent report from the Wyoming Game and Fish Department. In the meantime, Idaho recorded its lowest elk harvest since 2013, with lower than 19,000 elk tags stuffed and solely 21 p.c of hunters discovering success, based on Idaho Fish and Game.
Wildlife managers within the two Western states level to a number of components affecting final yr’s elk harvest. WGFD attributes the record-breaking harvest in Wyoming to the state’s rising elk herds and the enlargement of looking alternatives on personal land. The company factors out that with elk thought-about overpopulated in a lot of the state, regulated looking is important to managing these herds, and hunters in Wyoming harvested greater than 13,000 cows throughout the 2023 season — the very best numbers recorded there in roughly a decade.
“Hunters play an important position in wildlife conservation, and their dedication to assist handle elk populations is significantly appreciated,” WGFD Chief Rick Sort stated in a press launch. “We admire the entry supplied by landowners and the hassle expended by hunters within the harvest of antlerless elk.”
![An Idaho hunter with a bull elk.](https://www.outdoorlife.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/wyoming_vs_idaho_elk_harvest_stats.jpg?w=2000)
WGFD says resident and nonresident elk hunters in Wyoming spent greater than 480,000 days within the subject over the course of the 2023 looking season, and the statewide report exhibits that WGFD offered a mixed 77,647 elk tags final yr. The full hunter success charge was 53.5 p.c, with nonresidents having a 55.6 p.c success charge, and residents having a 52.9 p.c success charge.
The story was a lot totally different in Idaho, the place for the primary time since 2013, the statewide elk harvest dipped under 20,000 with solely 18,568 elk tagged. This represents an 11 p.c drop from 2022, regardless that the variety of hunters remained roughly the identical. (There have been lower than one p.c fewer licensed hunters this pastt season in comparison with 2022, based on IDFG.)
These hunters had a 21 p.c success charge general, and this determine represents the typical charge between normal hunts and managed hunts. The company factors out that whereas the success charges for normal hunts have been in step with earlier years, the charges for managed hunts dropped considerably from a five-year common of 41 p.c to final yr’s charge of 23 p.c.
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As for explanations, IDFG stated in a press launch that the 2023 elk harvest was “a little bit of a head-scratcher.” Though the company anticipated the brutal 2022-23 winter to impact big-game harvests statewide — mule deer harvests have been down 22 p.c final yr — elk hunters had the alternative downside to take care of this previous fall. Heat and dry situations allowed most of the state’s herds to remain on their summer time vary for much longer than in most years. This delayed migration really prevented the company from conducting certainly one of its deliberate surveys.
“It was form of a screwy yr,” IDFG deer and elk coordinator Toby Boudreau stated. “We’re pretty assured the dip within the statewide harvest doesn’t replicate a dip within the elk inhabitants, however it could take one other yr to see that.”