Central Wisconsin’s Black River elk herd has grown massive sufficient to maintain a hunt this fall, Wisconsin Division of Pure Assets wildlife biologist Christina Kizewski introduced at a Natural Resources Board meeting on April 10. Yearly since 2018 as much as 39,000 resident hunters have entered the draw for simply eight to 10 tags for the state’s solely elk hunt in northern Wisconsin; this new hunt will add extra alternatives, although officers haven’t but determined what number of tags will probably be allotted.
Wisconsin’s elk reintroduction efforts started in 1995 when WDNR acquired 25 elk from Michigan. That herd established within the Clam Lake Elk Vary within the northern a part of the state, and it hosted its first hunt in 2018. Elk have been relocated from Kentucky to the Black River vary in central Wisconsin in 2015 and 2016 to ascertain the state’s second herd, which has grown a lot sooner than the primary.
Calf recruitment within the central herd is shockingly excessive, Kizewski says — some 85 to 90 % of collared calves survive their first birthday. For context, in states with bigger predator populations than central Wisconsin, elk calf mortality is commonly under 50 %. One study in Washington confirmed simply 13 % of collared elk calves surviving their first 12 months in 2021. In 2022, the quantity jumped to 47 %, or roughly half the survival fee of the central Wisconsin herd.
“The herd additionally has a excessive being pregnant fee,” Kizewski says. “That is typically pushed by milder winter circumstances within the central zone, in addition to wholesome physique circumstances.”
Grownup mortality within the herd can be low, hovering between 10 and 20 %; car collisions are the herd’s largest reason for grownup mortality. The herd resides in jap Jackson County and is bordered by Interstate 94 to the southwest.
The whole elk inhabitants of Wisconsin sits at 400 people, though following this 12 months’s calving season, WDNR expects that quantity to develop to round 550. One-third of the inhabitants lives within the Black River herd, and the opposite two thirds within the Clam Lake herd.
Wildlife managers will set up the quota for the Black River hunt in the course of the Board’s May 21-22 meeting. All profitable candidates are required to take an elk hunter orientation course to take part.
Wisconsin’s coverage on authorized strategies of take for deer hunters additionally applies to elk. As such, the WDNR writes, “elk could also be hunted with harpoons, together with vertical bow, crossbow, muzzleloader, centerfire handgun or centerfire firearm.” Hunters aren’t legally required to put on blaze orange.
Learn Subsequent: The Complete Guide to Hunting Elk in Eastern States
Elk reintroduction efforts elsewhere within the Midwest and Southeast proceed to flourish. The Missouri Division of Conservation can be contemplating a resident antlerless elk hunt for the 2024 season, so as to add to their antlered hunt which started in 2020. Nearly a decade after reintroduction started in Carter, Reynolds, and Shannon counties, Missouri is now dwelling to round 320 elk, with a objective of reaching a inhabitants of 500. The laws for the antlerless hunt can be almost equivalent to the antlered hunt — each tags would price $50 plus a $10 utility charge, and each hunts can be open for an archery portion after which a firearms portion, MDC writes. The company is accepting public comment on the antlerless hunt by means of April 28.
