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Wildlife Detectives: Illegal Antler Hunting Is A Deadly Game For Elk

Courtney Flatt
/
Earthfix

Every year deer and elk lose their antlers. It’s kind of like when a child loses a baby tooth. For some, they’re are fun to collect. But other unscrupulous people are harassing animals to death in an effort grab the biggest antlers. Today in our series on wildlife crimes, Courtney Flatt from our EarthFix team takes a look at what that means for the animals and the people who try to protect them.

The trick to looking for antlers is to keep your eyes on the ground.

Tanner: “You’re trying to just find something that looks out of the ordinary.”

Rob Tanner and his brother-in-law Troy Capps are hiking around juniper trees and through bitterbrush in Central Oregon.

Every spring these two men make it their mission to find antlers shed from deer and elk. The sport is called shed hunting.

Tanner: “It’s just an adrenaline rush. It’s like, ‘Oh, this could be the one. This could be a really, really nice one.’”

They’re seeing hoof tracks and bushes nibbled by deer.

“We’re in the prime right here.”

Capps spots something on the ground. Signs of people, not deer.

Capps: “That’s a four-wheeler. I mean, they’re probably out here running around, and that’s, that’s wrong.”

This area is closed during the winter and early spring to motorized vehicles -- like this zigzagging four-wheeler. The closure protects animals and habitat.

Capps and Tanner founded Oregon Shed Hunters 10 years ago to promote ethical shed hunting. No cutting fences, no destroying habitat, no harassing animals to get them to drop their antlers faster.

To ethical shed hunters, forcing elk to drop their antlers is a cruel form of harassment.

Richard Mann is a wildlife enforcement captain with the state of Washington. He says people sometimes trespass into closed areas to collect shed antlers early. The end of winter is right before elk naturally shed their antlers. Mann says elk are at their most vulnerable, hungry, and sometimes sick.

Mann: “People are running these elk while they’re really in poor condition physically. They may not drop dead on site, but some of them do. Once they get off, they never recover from that kind of stress, and they’ll actually die in and around the feed area.”

In Washington, people caught trespassing in closed areas can be fined up to 1,000 dollars. Fines are usually lower than that. Antlers go for up to 35 dollars per pound. A set from a trophy animal can bring in thousands.

The volunteer group Eyes in the Woods helps law enforcement officers catch people who can’t resist that pay day. The group is setting up cameras Central Washington’s Oak Creek Wildlife Area to help spot trespassers.

Kyle Winton co-founded Eyes in the Woods 16 years ago.

The group secures the cameras inside bear boxes,

screws on an antennae,

and straps the boxes to trees.

Then they wait to see if the cameras catch anyone trespassing.

After several months their cameras had caught four people.

Winton says trespassers have been known to stockpile illegally-collected antlers all season. They sneak in Oak Creek the night before it re-opens -- hoping to carry their stashes out in the morning by blending in with the legal shed hunters.

Winton: “And it’s kind of suspicious when you see somebody coming out with 10 or 12 antlers at 9 o’clock in the morning.”

Winton and his fellow volunteers spend the night staking out the wildlife preserve before it reopens to the public. They use two-way radios to pass along updates on what they’re seeing.

The gates finally open for lines of cars, horses, and people on foot. They’ve waited a sleepless night to begin their search. By afternoon, people of all ages are gathering to show off their prizes.

7-year-old Bobbi Cline found an antler pretty close to the gate. It’s almost as big as her.

Bobbi: “I’m holding an elk ear that we found. We found it in the bushes.”

Bobbi Cline’s family is collecting antlers to make a chandelier one day. How soon they’re able to complete that project might depend on the success of wildlife officers and volunteer groups when it comes to stamping out illegal shed hunting.

Courtney Flatt is a Richland-based correspondent for the Northwest News Network.