BC’s Conservation Officer Service is investigating after a disturbing and grisly discovery on Vancouver Island’s west coast yesterday: a beheaded elk.
The man who found it suspects the bull was poached.
Cory Jones had been watching a herd of Roosevelt elk for the past several days meandering around Franklin River, south of the Alberni Valley before the discovery.
He recorded a video of them from his truck Friday.
“[I] went home to show the wife. She wanted to go see them on Sunday so I figured I’d take her out for a drive and see them. Unfortunately, we didn’t see them but we saw one dead bull,” said Jones.
A large bull, possibly the same one seen the day before was beheaded.
He couldn’t tell if it had been shot but he suspects it was poached, as hunters would’ve taken then meat.
Jones says he also couldn’t see any wounds that would’ve been consistent with dying in a fight with another elk.
Jones reported it immediately to the BC Conservation Officer Service.
“There are no openings right now for them unless you got a draw and in that particular area, I don’t think there’s even a draw opening for that area. It’s sad when you see that happening because you know if it wasn’t for the person or persons doing that maybe they’d be there to see or be able to take properly by somebody else,” said Jones.
A conservation group says if the elk was indeed poached, it’s something no one wants to see.
“It’s frustrating for everyone who cares about elk. The Vancouver Island elk story broadly is largely one of the only success stories we have in the province right now. We’ve managed to grow the population in a number of places. We’ve reintroduced elk onto the mainland,” said Jesse Zeman, with the BC Wildlife Federation.
He says the federation offers rewards for tips that lead to poachers getting caught and it has an app for reporting suspicious activity in the woods.
“It’s free. You can carry it with you where ever you go in or out of service. If you see anything that looks like it’s out of the norm you can take a picture or a video and it’s automatically shipped off to the appropriate enforcement agency,” said Zeman.
Conservation officers have gone to the carcass to investigate any signs of poaching.
Not far away in the Cowichan Valley authorities reported 15 elk that were poached within one month of the spring.
Kendall Hanson
