Exotics on The Loose

Ok, here is an interesting scenario. A private farmer's elk get loose and he has been unable to recover them. They have been loose for at least a month.

Is it legal for a hunter to shoot these animals and keep the meat?

What does Michigan Law say about this?

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~Ann

Every day spent outdoors is the best day of my life.

[Airoh]

Hmmm!! I think it's OK to shoot exotics that are living in the wild. No season or bag limit. Wonder if it is the same for loose elk?

Well, I can tell you these elk are not loose in an area anywhere close to where the wild elk are in Michigan.

But they do frequent a deer/coyote/small game lease I hunt.



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~Ann

Every day spent outdoors is the best day of my life.

By the way, how is an exotic defined legally?

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~Ann

Every day spent outdoors is the best day of my life.

[Recurve]

It's an interesting question. My guess would be as follows: Since Elk are native to Michigan and these are Elk that we're talking about, I would think that you would need the special permit to take one and only in the season. If I am not mistaken, the permit only covers Elk in a certain area. If these Elk are outside of that area then they could not be taken even if you had a permit. If these Elk were owned legally, prior to their escape, then the farmer could probably recover them by lethal means if he had access to the land they are on. Also, the land owner where the Elk now are, could probably take them by the same means if they are causing damage to his property. I would definately check with the DNR first.

[Airoh]

I think the elk may be livestock. Don't know what the laws are for handling them when they are loose. The simple answer is help the farmer retreive his livestock. On the other hand, if he is not making good effort to get it back.....who knows.

[boehr]

Originally posted by Airoh:
I think the elk may be livestock. Don't know what the laws are for handling them when they are loose. The simple answer is help the farmer retreive his livestock. On the other hand, if he is not making good effort to get it back.....who knows.
Airoh's answer here is the correct answer. Any exotics, not just elk, would be owned by someone. If you shot an exotic you would be shooting someone else's property. It is my recommendation that you contact the owner and work out an agreement with the owner. If you don't know who the owner is then contact the local District Office and they may be able to help telling you who the owner may be.

And just how would one capture a bull, cow and calf elk that keep busting loose?!

Suggestions? ;)

Also, wouldn't the "owner" be responsible to notify the DNR of his loose "livestock" or "property"? If the DNR is notified, what is their responsibility, if any?

I figure this to be a very unusual situation. I don't think he is able to catch them. He definitely cannot keep them contained.

Since we are on the topic of exotics, what about emu's or ostrich that may be making a home in the back country?

What happens if a hunter was to shoot these animals? Are they ticketed or arrested?



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~Ann

Every day spent outdoors is the best day of my life.

How about a tranqualizer gun

[boehr]

The capture would be up to the owner. It would be no different if a farmer had some of his cattle get loose. It would be investigated as to how the animals got loose, which may or may not be a violation of a persons game breeders license. Exotics though are not licensed by the DNR. As far as shooting somebody's property, it would more than likely be a civil matter. As stated before, you need to talk with the owner and come to some type of agreement.

http://www.roanoke.com/billcochran/120700.html

this was a elk mistaken for a deer in Va legally killed.


Virginia deer turns out to be an elk
By BILL COCHRAN
ROANOKE.COM COLUMNIST

On opening day of the deer season, Danny Clevinger thought he had a monster buck of a lifetime in the scope of his .30-06 rifle. He had placed his treestand in a poplar tree near where he had spotted some serious scrapes and rubs left behind by a rutting animal. He was hunting on a 22-acre tract of mountain land where he lives along the Buchanan-Tazewell County line near Shortt Gap, Va.

The rubbed places, where the animal had used its antlers to horn the bark off trees, were unusually large and high, and the scrapes, where the fallen leaves had been pawed back to expose the black soil, were huge. In one of the scrapes Clevinger had spotted a track much bigger than that of a whitetail deer. He figured one of the neighbor's cows had crossed onto his property and stepped in the scrape.

"I thought I had a big buck using the area," he said.

It wasn't a farfetched assumption. The biggest buck recorded in Virginia the previous season (see A huge buck but is it a Virginia record) had been killed in Buchanan County, and other trophy bucks had been spotted in the region.

Perched 15-feet high in his treestand, Clevinger spotted the antler-bearing animal he was after more than 100 yards away. It was moving toward the rubs where Clevinger had positioned his stand.

"I had a good view of two hollows and one main ridge and a lower ridge," he said.

When the animal closed to within 100 yards, Clevinger squeezed the trigger then went to claim his kill. What he found was a 4x4 (8-point) elk with a blue tag in its ear.

"I said, 'Oh no!' What have I done?' I was just in shock."

Clevinger had no idea that there were elk on his mountaintop. So he left the woods to call the Department of Game and Inland Fisheries' regional office in Marion. He was told to check the animal at a big game station, just like he would if it had been a deer.

When he tried to do that, the check station operator turned him down.

"I don't have any papers to check an elk," the operator said.

Clevinger called the Marion office again, and got the person who answered the phone to call the check station operator and tell him to register the elk as if it were a deer.

State game officials weren't surprised. They had predicted that elk being stocked in Kentucky would cross the border into Virginia. In fact, they already had carted three elk back to Kentucky.

"We know of some more, but we didn't know that this [Clevinger's] bull was there," said Allen Boynton, a wildlife biologist of the Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries.

"Kentucky has stocked elk in eastern Kentucky adjacent to Virginia for the past three years," said Boynton. "To date, over 700 elk have been released and plans call for the release of over 1,000 additional elk in the next three years."

Clevinger is the first hunter in Virginia since the early 1960s to legally kill and check an elk. It was a legal kill because Virginia classifies elk as deer. This makes them a valid target during archery, muzzleloading and general firearms seasons, as long as a hunter abides by the season dates, antler requirements and bag limits set for deer.

Most Virginia hunters, even those living along the Kentucky border, are just learning that elk are roaming their home terrain. Clevinger said he was totally flabbergasted that there was an elk on his property, or one within hundreds of miles. The only elk he'd ever seen was on television.

Boynton determined that Clevinger's elk was 2.5-years old. The Kentucky Department of Natural Resources in March, 2000 released the bull as a yearling caught in northern Utah.

"The release site was near Gulnare, Ky., in northwestern Pike County, about 75 miles from Mr. Clevinger's property," Boynton said.

Virginia officials haven't been keen on stocking elk, although a recent study reveals there is suitable habitat (see Bath, Highland counties best spot for elk in Virginia). Like the idea or not, if Kentucky has elk, then Virginia will also, since the big animals pay little attention to state boundaries. It is illegal to kill an elk in Kentucky, but officials there are considering a limited season. In Virginia, there have been discussions recently over whether regulations are needed specifically for elk.

"I am kinda surprised we haven't had more of them," said Boynton. "We haven't heard of any illegal kills. I think most people would have a hard time keeping that quiet."

In most instances, the Kentucky elk have remained near their release areas, but that hasn't always been the case. Boynton is aware of Virginia spottings in Lee, Wise, Scott, Dickenson and Buchanan counties.

"They are amazingly adept at staying out of view," said Boynton. "That was a surprise to me. They are wild elk from Utah and they have been hunted."

Virginia officials allow a hunter to dismember an elk in order to pack it out of the woods, as long as they don't destroy its sexual identity before it is checked.

Clevinger wishes he had been aware of this. He had to use a chainsaw to cut brush and small trees so he could get his four-wheel drive pickup to the kill sight. He guessed the elk weighed 500 to 800 pounds, probably nearer to 800. He had to use a second pickup to pull the elk into the bed of the first truck. Fourteen hours had elapsed from the time he killed it to the time he got it home.

Now he wonders if more elk might be lurking in his area. After all, the bull was making those scrapes to attract and impress others of his kind.