VAN BUREN, Mo. -- The saga of a wayward bull elk and his escapades around a Carter County cattle rancher's pasture continue, and officials from the Missouri Department of Conservation have turned to lethal force to remove the animal from the area.
As reported a couple weeks ago, in mid-January the young bull was blamed for spooking some of Linden Hills' cattle, causing them to tear down a section of his fence and escape on successive nights. Some even made it across Highway 60, but all were recovered over the course of several days.
After a couple weeks of calm around the pasture and no more sightings of the bull on that property, the elk again is being blamed for the Feb. 4 escape of about a dozen cows, one of which was struck by a tractor-trailer on Highway 60. The truck driver was uninjured in the accident and continued on his way, but the cow perished.
"After almost seven years since the initial elk release, this is our first real problem," said Dave Hasenbeck, the Department of Conservation's elk program coordinator. "Our elk track record has been pretty good, and nobody wished this on Mr. Hills."
Besides some fabric ground blind material, which is now gone, stuck in the bull's antlers and temporarily obstructing his vision, Hasenbeck also initially suspected a brainworm infection as a possible culprit for the bull's behavior. Now, he doesn't believe that's the case either because game camera images show the bull "looks pretty good."
Hasenbeck called the bull a "loaner" and said it was "likely a little confused." Otherwise, it would be "very uncommon for him to continue to mess with the cattle."
Some locals have speculated, Hasenbeck noted, that the elk may be trying to gather a harem of females, much like they do in the fall breeding season, but that is a misconception.
"It's much more likely they're just spooked by his presence in the pasture," he said. "There aren't any cows following him around the woods."
MDC officials had hoped the bull would move away from the area on his own, and with multiple game cameras set up on nearby properties (none on the Hills property), he "hasn't been spotted in Mr. Hills' pasture in weeks," Hasenbeck said.
Images of the elk, however, are being captured almost nightly on adjacent properties, and once the cow fatality occurred, MDC staff was forced to step up efforts to remove the animal.
Darting it was a short-range, and nearly impossible, task, and hazing the elk to make him move away wouldn't work because there was no way to know exactly where he was at any time. The only real option was lethal force, a move approved by MDC's top brass.
"We've tried to apply lethal controls for 10 days now," said Hasenbeck, who noted the efforts of several people so far have been thwarted.
"He's not a stupid elk," Hasenbeck said, noting countless hours have been spent by staff watching a baited area with rifle at hand, ready to kill the bull -- but he continues to evade them.
Because the bull almost always shows up at the bait site at night, MDC staff have pulled no punches by using night-vision and thermal imaging systems during dark hours, but still, success has been elusive.
Even worse, internet-enabled game cameras several times have shown the bull on the bait shortly after the shooter leaves the blind.
"I don't know if he's winding us or he's just watching from a hundred yards out for us to leave," said Hasenbeck, "but it's happened several times. He's done a good job of avoiding us."
As of late last week, Hasenbeck said, MDC was going to take a wait-and-see approach to the problem.
"We're going to have to make a decision on whether to continue to apply lethal controls," he said, "but we're going to let things simmer for a few days."
The department, Hasenbeck emphasized, "wants to work with Mr. Hills, and he knows we're trying. We do have a responsibility to our agriculture community and we're trying to do the right thing."