Area of recreational sprawl in the Mogollon Rim country is full of elk that often mix with people-
The elk said to still be “at large.” It is not clear what prompted the elk to stomp the woman, but elk mix frequently with people in this area of forest, grassland, tourists and second homes. “Elk attacks” in such areas are not uncommon, probably because they are sometimes fed, do not fear people, and people sometimes violate what elk consider to be nonthreatening behavior.
Rogue elk attacks Payson woman. By Pete Aleshire. Payson Roundup.
Ralph Maughan
Dr. Ralph Maughan is professor emeritus of political science at Idaho State University. He was a Western Watersheds Project Board Member off and on for many years, and was also its President for several years. For a long time he produced Ralph Maughan's Wolf Report. He was a founder of the Greater Yellowstone Coalition. He and Jackie Johnson Maughan wrote three editions of "Hiking Idaho." He also wrote "Beyond the Tetons" and "Backpacking Wyoming's Teton and Washakie Wilderness." He created and is the administrator of The Wildlife News.
It will be interesting as the facts come out…if she admits it..that she was trying to get too close. We have seen people in Rocky Mountain National Park try and get next to elk to have their pictures taken while the males are bugling..not smart. If they get injured, well the concept in the law is ‘assumption of risk”…:*)
The circumstances doesn’t seem to matter….they’re going to kill the elk, regardless….WTF!!!
Wonder if the RMEF and David Allen will put out a press release warning people??
Cow elk are aggressive this time of year as most of them have calves.
I stopped at an elk ranch near Salmon, Idaho, many years ago and the owner gave me a tour. She handed me a ten foot long lodgpole stick to carry and told me to poke any cow elk that attacked. She carried one also.
She showed me a hole in the pasture about three feet across and two feet deep where the elk had killed the neighbor’s dog when it got in the pasture. The cow elk would repeatedly return to the spot where they killed the dog, sniff the spot and stomp the hole deeper.
The elk ranch owner had retrieved the greasy , flattened remains of the dog the day before when it was killed. When I think about it, the hole was more like 4-5 feet across.
The Arizona lady that was attacked by the cow elk is lucky that she didn’t turn out to be a grease spot like the dog that got into the cow/calf pasture.