‘Good entertainment.’ Young elk keeps returning to cabin and foils hunter’s plan in WA
A young elk kept returning to a hunter’s cabin, foiling his plans to hunt larger game in Washington, officials said.
The elk is seen in a video playing with a shooting target in Mike Erickson’s yard, the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife posted Sept. 21 on X, formerly known as Twitter.
“This guy is apparently practicing for the rut, which gets (underway) around mid-September,” the agency wrote.
During the rut, elk look for female mates.
The young elk returned to Erickson’s cabin three days in a row to mess with a target before dragging it into the woods, forcing him to retrieve it each time, spokesperson for the state’s fish and wildlife agency Staci Lehman told McClatchy News.
Although the elk was “good entertainment,” its presence kept large bull elks away from the secluded area near Erickson’s cabin.
Elks need to have “racks with three points or more” in order to be hunted in this area, so this elk was too young to be harvested, Lehman said.
Erickson didn’t end up harvesting any elk.
Packwood is about 110 miles southeast of Seattle.
This story was originally published September 22, 2023 at 12:56 PM with the headline "‘Good entertainment.’ Young elk keeps returning to cabin and foils hunter’s plan in WA."
