Young Adult Elk Killed by Wolves Near Clam Lake
Wisconsin Ag Connection Editors – 08/25/2003
A predator-prey relationship absent from Wisconsin for more than a century
played out last week when a wolf pack attacked, killed and consumed a
young adult elk near Clam Lake. What’s significant about this
relationship, state officials say, is that both species, wolves and elk,
were once extirpated from Wisconsin — meaning there were no longer found
in the state — but that populations of both species have now recovered to
the point where they can again interact in natural predator-prey
relationship. “I can understand how some people may be concerned that
wolves have killed one of the elk we have successfully helped return to
the state,” said Scott Hassett, secretary of the state Department of
Natural Resources, “but we’ve lost four of them to bears.
This is the first time since the elk herd’s reintroduction in 1995 that
wolves killed an adult-sixed elk, though wolves are believed to have
killed three elk calves in 1999, according to Laine Stowell, the DNR elk
biologist at Hayward. The elk killed this month had an attached radio
transmitter that began emitting a mortality signal sometime last week,
indicating the collar had not moved in at least a day.
The elk was most likely killed by a pack known as the Ghost Lake wolf
pack, which during the most recent winter surveys was estimated at three
to five wolves, according to Adrian Wydeven, DNR wolf biologist at park
Falls.