- CHEYENNE, Wyo. (AP) -- Biologists
are trying to determine what is causing the biggest elk die-off anyone
in Wyoming can remember.
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- The elk started falling nearly a month ago and the death
count has topped 280 over a 15-square-mile area in south-central Wyoming.
But that figure is probably low because officials have stopped counting
to focus on the cause.
-
- It has been a process of elimination, with no solid theories
yet.
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- "This is quite unprecedented for wildlife. The only
other time we find this kind of die-off of wildlife is a winter kill -
starvation, that kind of thing," said Walt Cook, a veterinarian with
the Wyoming Game and Fish Department. "And that's not what's going
on here."
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- With plenty of forage available and hardly any snow in
their way, the elk are relatively fat, suggesting they have at least been
willing and able to eat.
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- Chronic wasting disease - the elk and deer equivalent
of mad cow disease - has been ruled out from post-mortem examinations.
The usual viruses, bacteria and plant toxins also have been eliminated.
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- A vitamin or mineral deficiency remains a possibility.
Four elk that did not die or were euthanized have been taken to the state
veterinary lab in Laramie for study and to be nursed back to health. But
while those elk have been given a pharmacy aisle of vitamins and minerals,
as well as water and anti-inflammatory drugs, they have not been recovering.
-
- That leads Cook to consider some unusual infectious agent
or toxin.
-
- While remote, the area 150 miles northwest of Cheyenne
has a railroad running through it and some oil and gas wells.
-
- "All those sources have been looked at pretty darn
hard and we're going to continue to look at those to see if we can see
anything," said Tom Reed, spokesman for the Game and Fish Department.
-
- Yet even pollution seems unlikely considering that other
animals in the area, including deer and antelope, remain healthy. Elk are
usually the last animals to succumb, not the first.
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- "Elk are extremely adaptable, they are extremely
ruggedly built. They are built for hard winters, tough conditions,"
Reed said.
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- A possible clue is how most of the elk have been adult
females and calves, with just one older male afflicted. During the winter,
adult bull elk roam higher ground in groups called bachelor bands while
elk cows and calves keep to lower areas.
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- Another possible clue is the discovery of muscle lesions
in the downed elk. Biologists hope to learn whether the injuries caused
the elk to fall or were sustained while the elk struggled on the ground.
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- Even with the nation's wildlife authorities working on
the mystery, Cook wonders if it ever will be solved.
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- "That's something we have to be prepared for,"
he said.
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- http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20040304/ap_on_sc/elk_deaths
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