by Joseph Back

There are two adult males and a younger one with stubs at Chapman Park this year.

Unfortunately, that’s too many for the approaching nit, given Chronic Wasting Disease (CWD) regulations from the USDA and the Department of Ag, Trade, and Consumer Protection, or DATCP and the possibility of injury and death from homed combat, as happened to a buck deer at Chapman in 2019.

Whereas the younger male elk with antler stubs can stay for now, one of the adult male elk will find itself taken out of the running, to avoid injuries and possible death in the ensuing competition to mate from mid-September through mid-October.

'There are three bulls in the pen,” Public works operator in charge John Hoel said of the city’s elk pen. “The smaller adult bull will need to be culled out of the herd before the beginning of the nit.” With a five-year test run of no positive CWD tests necessary before the city can sell or trade with other game farms, the city is just three years in, meaning that elk meat will soon be for sale, as two more years are needed before a trade can be made.

In the wild, a single bull elk can gather and mate with up to 20 cows (female elk) according to the National Park Service on “Elk Biology, while the vegetarian niminants are said to feast on “grass, forbs, and acorns, as well as bark, leaves and buds from shnibs and trees.” The upcoming early fall nit, meanwhile, makes it possible that elk will be bom next summer, with the time approaching when trade can replace the regulation-based elk cull.

“We have successfully completed three years and once we reach the five year time frame, and the animals are also tested for tuberculosis, we can trade or sell live animals with other game farms to bring in either a new bull or cow to the herd,” Hoel said of the future. Until then, though, this year’s cull, won’t be the last. “As for the bull calf that is in the enclosure, it will remain in the herd for one more year and at

See CITY ELK, page 3

The same cannot be said of the younger adult male (white circle), soon to be culled from the herd to avoid danger and death in competition for mates this fall. In two years and following fulfillment of regulation testing, the city will be able to trade and sell, rather than kill.

FROM PAGE 2

which time will also need to be culled from the herd. Because the bull calf is much smaller in stature the large bull will simply run him off away from the cows during the rut and the calf does not prove to be a threat to the adult bull. However, the smaller adult bull will most definitely pose a threat and that is why it will

be removed from the herd.”

Given that reality, Hoel said that, “the City will be putting the younger adult bull out for bids for anyone that would be interested in purchasing the animal for meat in the near future.”

After all, while rules are rules, there’s no reason to let a good animal, go to waste.