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Lightning is blamed for killing 56 elk in the Mount Evans Wilderness during the second week of August. The elk were above timberline on a ridge at 12,200 feet, four miles south of the Mount Evans summit, when the bolt struck.
"We^ve found big game animals before that were killed by lightning – it^s probably something that happens every year in Colorado," said Janet George, wildlife biologist for the Division of Wildlife. "But it^s quite rare to find so many animals killed in one incident."
George and District Wildlife Manager Russ Mason rode into the remote area on horseback Thursday Aug. 19 to inspect the animals after being informed of the loss by a hunter who found the elk during a preseason-scouting trip. Forty-eight of the elk were grouped together within a 60-foot circumference, five other elk were located 75 feet away and three others were located about 130 feet away from the main group.
"While this is certainly a tragedy for these animals, the elk population in the Mount Evans area and across the state is in excellent shape," George said. "From a management perspective, this loss has negligible ramifications for the local or the statewide herd."
Colorado is home to approximately 216,000 elk, with the Mount Evans herd estimated to contain more than 2,400 animals. According to Mason, the loss of 56 elk shouldn^t be a big factor for wildlife watchers or hunters. Few people even make the arduous trip back into the area where the elk died and with well more than 2,000 other elk inhabiting the Mount Evans area, wildlife watching and elk hunting opportunities should be maintained this season, he said.
Past incidents of big game animals being killed by lightning have occurred in Colorado and elsewhere. In 1997, six bighorn sheep were killed in Colorado^s Kenosha Mountains; in 1986, 12
elk were killed by lightning along the Continental Divide just north of the Eisenhower Tunnel; and outside of Colorado 53 caribou were electrocuted by lightning in Central Alaska in 1972.
Of the animals killed on Mount Evans, nine were calf elk, 34 were cow elk and 13 were bull elk. Of the bulls killed, all were under four years of age. No large, branch-antlered bulls died
in the incident.
The Division of Wildlife plans to let nature take the lead in disposing of the carcasses, George said. "This was a natural event in a remote area and the obvious best course of action is to let nature finish what it started," she said. "The carcasses are already well decomposed and a variety of wildlife have been feeding on them.
"One thing^s for sure, there are a lot of happy ravens, eagles and coyotes up there right now."
Uploaded: 9/4/1999
Uploaded: 9/4/1999