VAN BUREN, Mo. — The Missouri Department of Conservation is looking for whoever is responsible for an elk that was illegally shot.
MDC agents say an adult female elk was found shot and left for dead the morning of Monday, November 18th in Carter County. It was found on National Park Service property near the end of M Hwy.
No meat or other parts of the animal were taken. By the time the dead cow elk was found by conservation agents, the meat was no longer salvageable for donation. Help us find the poacher(s)!
Missouri Department of Conservation
The MDC reports this as the 6th elk killed by poachers over the last several years.
Anyone with any information should contact Operation Game Thief at 1-800-392-1111 or the MDC Ozark Regional Office in West Plains at (417) 256-7161.
Background info: Elk were once found throughout most of the state, but by the mid-1880s market hunting had erased any trace of free-ranging elk from the Missouri landscape. From 2011 through 2013, MDC reintroduced 108 elk captured in Kentucky onto Peck Ranch Conservation Area in the Missouri Ozarks. These elk formed the base of Missouri’s current free-ranging elk herd of nearly 200 animals in parts of Carter, Shannon, and Reynolds counties (Source: MDC).
