Field Reports: Idaho elk harvest dropped in 2023

From staff reports

Mild weather didn’t do Idaho hunters any favors last fall, and it likely contributed to a decline in the state’s elk harvest.

The Idaho Department of Fish and Game this week released harvest data for the fall hunting season, tallying up the deer and elk taken by hunters throughout the state.

Among the most significant findings was an 11% drop in elk harvest from the prior year. The roughly 18,500 elk taken by hunters in 2023 was the lowest total since 2013.

Idaho Fish and Game officials wrote in a news release that the drop is likely because warm weather in the fall made hunting tough. Radio collar data also showed the animals spent more time on summer range than in years past.

Toby Boudreau, the agency’s deer and elk coordinator, said the agency is confident the dip in harvest doesn’t reflect a dip in overall elk numbers.

The number of mule deer taken by hunters was also down 22%, which the agency said was expected because of the hard winter of 2022. White-tail deer harvest was up slightly.

Grizzly bear euthanized in Montana after killing cattle

A grizzly bear in north-central Montana was killed Monday after it ate cattle on private land along the Rocky Mountain Front.

Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks said in a news release that the bear was a young adult male weighing 375 pounds.

It had been trapped and fitted with a radio collar in early March. It was also relocated at that time.

Because it had been handled earlier in the month and still attacked cattle, officials decided to euthanize the bear after the most recent incident. The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Wildlife Services killed the bear.