Missouri conservation agents: Who is the poacher that shot this baby elk in the head?

The elk was just a few weeks old when someone shot it in the head and left it by the side of the road.

The Missouri Department of Conservation wants to know who did that. It’s called poaching.

The baby elk was a symbol of success for a wild species reintroduced to Missouri in 2011 after an absence of 150 years. But for someone with a gun it was just a target.

Poaching is not hunting, said Gerald Smith, the Conservation Department’s Ozark Regional Protection Supervisor. In fact, Missouri does not have an elk hunting season.

“These poaching incidents are ethically wrong and represent poor moral conduct,” Smith said in an announcement seeking the public’s help in identifying the shooter. “The people who did this do not understand the value of conserving wildlife, the value of the law, or reflect the the values held by the majority of Missouri’s local or state citizens.”

The elk was born July 13 in Shannon County in southeastern Missouri. As part of its management plan, the conservation department attached a radio collar.

A few weeks later the collar sent a mortality signal.

“Elk calf 1829 wasn’t yet the size of a small deer, so its placement next to a road might have been driven by the poacher’s desire for attention,” Smith said.

There are two self-guided driving tours for elk viewing in Missouri at the Peck Ranch and Current River conservation areas. The economic impact on the region was estimated at $1.3 million in 2016.

This is the second known elk poaching in Missouri. The first involved a mature bull killed in 2015. In that case, poachers removed the antlers with a chain saw and left the carcass.

Anyone with information about the latest poaching may anonymously call the Operation Game Thief hotline at 1-800-392-1111.

This story was originally published October 25, 2018 at 12:05 PM.