Two bull elk regularly photographed by visitors have been poached at Rocky Mountain National Park/Kurt Repanshek file
Rangers at Rocky Mountain National Park in Colorado are investigating two apparent cases of elk poaching, both that occurred along Trail Ridge Road.
The most recent case was reported Saturday morning when visitors found a dead bull elk near the Ute Crossing Trail south of Forest Canyon Overlook along the road. Park rangers investigated and discovered the large bull elk had been poached during the night of Friday, September 21, or early morning Saturday, September 22, but gave no details as to what convinced them it had been poached.
Back on September 12, rangers discovered a large bull elk had been poached on Trail Ridge Road near Milner Pass. This occurred during the night of Tuesday, September 11, or early morning September 12, park staff said. This bull’s head had been severed and the carcass remained.
Park rangers urge anyone with information on these incidents or other incidents related to wildlife poaching in the park to call or text the National Park Service Investigative Services Bureau at 888-653-0009 or call Operation Game Thief at 1-800-332-4155. Persons providing information that leads to an arrest may receive a reward. If you have information that could help investigators, or if you were in the locations listed above, you're asked to contact rangers. You can remain anonymous.
The group of elk near Milner Pass in particular had frequented that area. Park rangers are asking for any photographs taken of bull elk near Milner Pass. Please email those to [email protected] or post on the park’s Facebook page at RockyNPS.
Rocky Mountain National Park’s wildlife is a resource for all to enjoy and protect. Both of these elk were magnificent large bulls, a park release said. Tens of thousands of park visitors have viewed and photographed these bulls. The individual(s) involved with these egregious poaching incidents have taken from park visitors this experience and killed two strong bull elk during the rutting season, park staff said.
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Comments
What a tragedy, loss to the park, the visitors and the herd. Praying that they are brought to justice... we are coming in 2 weeks and can't wait to view the wildlife in the park.
Poaching is egregious and is not acceptable, period. However, readers should be aware that NPS does shoot elk to control their numbers in the Park. "Culling is a management tool that uses agency personnel and authorized agents (including qualified volunteers) to remove elk from the park's population by lethal means. A total of 131 elk were removed from the park population during the winters of 2008-2011." https://www.nps.gov/romo/learn/management/implementation-elk-population.htm
I am so tired of humans thinking their lives are the only ones that matter!!! Personally I think when these murderers are caught they should have to sit in the middle of a field, defenseless and be shot at, wounded and killed. An eye for an eye......a life for a life. Humans are the most over populated species on the planet and we won't miss a few demented, selfish losers who think its fun to take innocent lives being culled from the human gene pool. I'd be more then happy to be on the firing line.
Lms - your comments are diagnosable.