There are not a great number of people who get an opportunity to hunt elk in Minnesota but those who did so in 2018 fared quite well. The Minnesota Department of Natural Resources (DNR) issued 22 permits and hunters took 17 elk. If you do the math, that is a success rate of 77 percent.
“We structured the hunts to fall within the breeding season when bull elk are most vulnerable and actively bugling, making it easier for hunters to hear and then find them,” Ruth Anne Franke, DNR Karlstad area wildlife supervisor, told the Pilot-Independent.
Wildlife officials did not issue any permits for the Grygla area where numbers are below objective.
The Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation supplied funding for a 2018 study that showed more than three-fourths of those asked in northeast Minnesota would like elk on the landscape there.
(Photo source: Minnesota Department of Natural Resources)