Two elk were down when I arrived at Land Between The Lakes National Recreation Area (LBL) in western Kentucky on Tuesday Jan. 23, at about 4 p.m.

Thomas Kind, a geoscience professor at Murray State and capture-volunteer, was attending to a 400-pound yearling and Rick Lowe, deputy area supervisor at LBL, was monitoring a 700-pound cow.

Biologists and staff from the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, LBL, the USDA Forest Service and the University of Tennessee were in the process of capturing 26 elk that will be released into the GSMNP, as the first phase of a five-year study to determine the feasibility of creating a free roaming herd of elk in the park. The animals will be transported by trailer from LBL on Thursday, Feb. 1, and released into a 3-acre acclimation pen in Cataloochee Valley on Friday, Feb. 2.

These were elk 23 and 24. They had just been darted. As soon as the elks go down from the tranquilizing dart, someone from the capture team goes to them to hold their head up. That makes it easier for the animal to breathe. Blindfolds are put over the animals’ eyes to help calm them.

As quickly as possible after the animals are down, the transport team moves in. The elk are rolled over and a sturdy tarp with sewn handles is placed under the animal. The elk is lifted into a ready trailer and shuttled to a staging area.

Two veterinarians, a vet-tech and graduate student Jennifer Murrow begin the “reversal” with an antidote to the tranquilizer. The crew then does a quick “work-up” (recording measurements, temperature, age and sex, and removing antlers from the bulls with a rope saw). Within minutes the elk is up and joins other captured animals in a holding pen.

With elks 23 and 24 in the holding pen and about 45 minutes of daylight left, biologists Kim Delozier of GSMNP and Steve Bloemer of LBL decide to try for 25 and 26. A study of the capture sheet and a quick radio conversation with Murrow confirms that the ideal candidates for numbers 25 and 26 would be two young bulls.

Bulls had been observed in the area where the last two elk were taken. I climbed into the vehicle with Delozier and Bloemer and we started across the prairie. There were bulls present, but they were somewhat wary and began to move away. Bloemer decided to drive around and approach the bulls from the other end of the prairie. This time the bulls stayed in view as we approached. There were four bulls, but all were adults.

Now there was only about half an hour of daylight left. The word went out over the radio and the transport crew and other staff began looking for yearling bulls.

Time was slipping away. Delozier conferred with Murrow and they decided they would settle for one of the adult bulls and another calf. We were headed back to the spot where the large bulls were when a call came over the radio:

“Go to the entrance, to the prairie and look to your left.”

There, in the glow of the last of the evening’s sunlight, was a group of four yearling bulls. Bloemer looked through the range-finder. The first bull was 49 yards away. The dart rifle is metered and has to be set on the appropriate distance. The dart has to go into the flesh, but not all the way into the animal and not just into the hide.

“Forty-nine?” asked Delozier.

“Forty-nine,” said Bloemer.

The little .22 cartridge popped and the dart went into the rump of the bull.

“Someone time and watch that one,” Delozier said. “What’s the distance to the other one?”

“Fifty-eight,” Bloemer said.

Delozier walked a few feet into the prairie, aimed and fired. Another hit.

The first bull was down now, and Bloemer went to it to make sure it could breathe. The rest of the support crew was now on the scene. The second bull was a little deeper in the woods. A road had to be cleared for the jeep and transport trailer. It was dark now, and the transport had to be guided in with a flashlight.

Numbers 25 and 26 were reversed and worked-up in the glare of a floodlight hung on the fence at the holding pen.

There was a general mood of relief and exhilaration. The group had been working since Sunday, Jan. 21, to complete the capture. Three were captured Sunday night, 10 on Monday and 13 on Tuesday.
The mood carried over to Wednesday morning. “The capture went as well as we could hope for,” Delozier said. “It is just a monumental effort. So many details, so many logistics. It was a big team effort, we did not lose any animals and no one was injured.”

Bloemer, in what turned out to be a prophetic statement, noted, “Any time you’re capturing, restraining, handling and transporting wild animals, some mortality is expected.”

On Friday, Jan.26, LBL veterinarian Loran Wagoner reported that one calf suffered a broken leg and had to be humanely euthanized. The broken leg was discovered when the elk were being examined by a state veterinarian. Wagoner said he did not know how or when the break occurred. The good news is that the remaining elk who have so far been checked got a clean bill of health.

There will be a ceremony dedicating the release of the elk in Cataloochee Valley at 11 a.m., Friday, Feb. 2. There will be closed circuit television set up about a half-mile from the release site. The release will be done in three steps, with three trailers. About 100 spectators will be able to few each of the releases.
Delozier said that spectators can be part of a successful release if they remember that the elk are wild animals.

“Everything that’s happening to these animals is unnatural. They are under tremendous stress,” he said.
If the crowds will show restraint and keep the noise down, it could go a long way towards promoting a safe and injury free release, Delozier said.

View the elk capture gallery

 

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