DNR selects hunters from lottery for 2005 elk season (2005-09-13)

The Minnesota Department of Natural Resources (DNR) selected six hunters from a recent drawing for five elk permits available in Minnesota's 2005 elk season. Hunters were allowed to apply singly or in parties of two for the available permits. The hunts are scheduled for this fall near the town of Grygla in northwestern Minnesota.

One permit was available for a bull elk during a season to be held Sept. 17-25. Four permits for antlerless elk were issued for the season to be held Dec. 3-11.

A hunter from Underwood drew the bull tag for this year's hunt. Hunters from LeSueur, Eyota, Lake Park, Audubon and Edina drew the antlerless permits. A total of 588 parties applied for the five available permits this year, compared with 1,106 applicants in 2004. Minnesota's elk management plan calls for maintaining the Grygla herd at 20-30 adult animals in the range that they currently occupy. (A second herd exists in Kittson County that is not hunted.) This year's pre-calving count was approximately 35 animals.

"Exact counts are difficult to obtain, even with aerial surveys, because the entire herd is rarely seen all together in close proximity," explained Joel Huener, a wildlife manager at Thief Lake Wildlife Management Area. "Usually, elk are sighted in smaller groups scattered over large areas of timber and brush."

Elk were eliminated from Minnesota's landscape, part of their natural range, in the early part of the last century following habitat change and over harvest. The Grygla herd was reintroduced in the 1930s. This is the sixth time in modern history the DNR has initiated a hunt to maintain the herd at its target level.

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