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PIUTE COUNTY — Wildlife officers are looking for individuals responsible for poaching two cow elk found just off Utah state Route 22.
Around 8 a.m. Monday, March 8, Division of Wildlife Resources was alerted to two elk carcasses just off the highway on the Kingston Canyon Wildlife Management Area, about 2.5 miles west of Otter Creek Reservoir.
“It is an area that has a lot of wildlife,” said conservation officer Kody Jones. “So we do have problems with poaching in that area.”
DWR officers determined the animals had been shot earlier that morning and left to waste. The two cow elk were about 100 yards apart in a meadow on the side of state Route 22, Jones said.
Jones has investigated three other poaching incidents, including a deer in Fillmore City, this week. This is not an abnormal number of poaching incidents, he said, but he believes the warm weather contributes to spring poaching activity.
“A lot of it has to do with when people are out,” he said. “Animals aren’t found as quickly and I don’t think they’re poached quite as often in the winter.”
Anyone with information about the death of the elk or other possible poachings are asked to call the UTiP hotline at 1-800-662-3337.
