fossil_digger Report This Comment Date: February 07, 2007 05:04PM
RENO, Nev. (AP) -- It's not all checking hunting and fishing licenses.
Sometimes the issues are bigger. Like when a Nevada game warden was handed
the chore of figuring out how to separate two bull elk who locked horns
while sparring and couldn't untangle them.
The saga began Nov. 21 when a rancher in Reese River Valley spotted the two
elk.
By the following day, the animals were gone and the rancher assumed they had
separated.A week later, according to Nevada Division of Wildlife biologist Tom
Donham,the rancher was out looking for some of his cows and saw the elk
again.
This time, he called the wildlife department and Donham, game warden Brian Eller
and Bureau of Land Management wildlife biologist Bryson Code headed out to see
what they could do.When they reached Indian Valley, south of Austin, it was Nov.
29, one week after the elk were first seen. "When we arrived where the
rancher had last seen them, we found them pretty quickly. They were both lying
on the ground and one of them was in a very uncomfortable looking position with
his head directly above the others head and his nose pointing straight up to the
sky," Donham said. Eller said he wondered if they had survived their
ordeal. "Once we found out they were alive, I was hoping they couldn't move
and
would stay where they were. That didn't happen. When they ran off, I was
hoping that they could not go very far. That didn't happen either," he
said.
The elk may have been sparring at the outset, but Donham and Eller say they
used teamwork to run for nearly a mile to evade the newcomers. "It
looked
like they had been doing it all their lives; serious cooperation if I've ever
seen it," Donham said. After two unsuccessful attempts, Donham was able to
get a tranquilizer dart into one of the elk. With one down, the other could not
run, but was also partially tranquilized in order to separate the two.
Eller and Code helped hold the elk down while Donham used a hand saw to remove
part of an antler off one of them. "As soon as they were apart, the bull
that hadn't gotten a full dose jumped to his feet and Bryson, Brian and I
quickly gave him all the room he wanted. He went off about 30 yards and lay down
for about 10 minutes before finally walking up the hill and over the ridge, none
the worse for wear" Donham said. The other elk was tre ated with
antibiotics and eventually walked off as well after the tranquilizer had worn
off.
"If these two bulls had not been discovered, and we never got the call,
they
more than likely would have both died. Watching the bulls walk away, and
knowing that we likely saved them from a slow death was definitely one of
those moments that makes this job rewarding."
90130_ Report This Comment Date: February 08, 2007 08:02AM
Poor critters. At least there was a happy ending.
fossil_digger Report This Comment Date: February 08, 2007 03:04PM
you wonder if they are buddies now.
hey man remember, that fine lookin' elk chick?
