Wildlife officers probe Macon County elk shooting

TELLICO – State Wildlife Resources Commission officers are reviewing the shooting death of an elk that repeatedly raided a farmer’s vegetable crops.

The incident happened Aug. 15 on private property in the Tellico community of Macon County, Wildlife Resources Commission Lt. Andrew Helton said.

The farmer shot and killed the bull elk, estimated at 2 to 3 years old, after the animal hung around a garden for three days eating corn and beans the farmer was cultivating as a cash crop.

The farmer has not been charged, but officers are still reviewing the case, Helton said. He said he could not release the man’s name because he has not been charged.

The farmer broke the law in shooting the animal because elk are listed as a species of special concern and the man did not obtain a depredation permit to kill the bull, Helton said. Property owners can apply for such a permit through the Wildlife Resources Commission to kill an animal that is destroying property.

Helton said the case is complex because the man made a sincere effort to get the bull to leave his field.

“He did try everything he could to get this elk to leave his garden,” Helton said. “He tried to run it off with a vehicle. He tried shooting over its head with birdshot. It would run off, but it would always come back.”

The farmer called the Wildlife Resources Commission in the days leading up to the shooting, but Helton said the commission has no relocation program for problem elk.

“He said he was not interested in killing the animal,” Helton said. “The tactics just did not work on this bull.”

Helton said a Wildlife Resources Commission biologist removed the carcass.

The majestic Smokies elk, reintroduced into Great Smoky Mountains National Park in 2001, are hugely popular with tourists. But many of the animals have migrated outside the park and have become nuisance animals for landowners.

Wildlife officials have documented that elk have torn down fences, destroyed hay fields and baled hay, depleted pasture grasses, destroyed gardens, damaged trees, damaged a cemetery and killed two dogs.

When elk were reintroduced to the national park, 25 were imported from Kentucky and another 27 from Canada. Today, Helton estimated there are 200-300 elk in Western North Carolina, with only about 30 percent of them still in the national park.

Landowners should call the Wildlife Resources Commission hotline at 800-662-7137 to report a problem elk. Helton said property owners should not construe the Tellico case as a green light for killing elk. This was an extreme case, he said.

“We want to do everything we can to protect these animals,” Helton said. “We don’t want to see them killed. But when we have a problem animal like this, sometimes there’s no other choice.”