Adult cows have passed through the most perilous portion of life for a wild elk – mortality is highest as a calf – and are in the most productive portion of their life cycle.Īdult cows are the most important individuals in an elk population determining herd growth.Īlthough some hunters and wildlife watchers express concern about wolf predation on Wisconsin elk, in the central herd there has been no documented case of a wolf kill on an elk since 2017, according to DNR data. The loss of adult cows to illegal shootings is particularly hard for many conservationists to accept. As of October, the northern herd numbered about 225, the central herd about 95, according to the DNR. The northern and central herds were placed strategically in areas with a large amount of public land and good elk habitat. Subsequent transfers from Kentucky over the next couple of years augmented both the northern and central Wisconsin herds. A reintroduction project brought elk back to the Badger State in 1995 when 25 animals were transferred from Michigan to the Chequamegon-Nicolet National Forest near Clam Lake.Ī second herd was established in Jackson County beginning in 2015 with a shipment of elk from Kentucky. And in 2019 a Mukwonago hunter received $6,150 in citations for illegally shooting two bull elk in Rusk County.Įlk were native to Wisconsin but wiped out in the 1800s due to unregulated hunting and habitat loss, according to the DNR. In 2018 a bull and a cow were killed by gun deer hunters in central Wisconsin.
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