Well it ain't in the west but
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Slugz
Veteran member
That's great to hear. Lot of effort by a lot of people the past 10 years to get animals reintroduced in areas they used to be. Awesome!
stumpy waters
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- Sep 25, 2015
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Slugz
Veteran member
Stumpy welcome to EF. Lot of great people and info here. Recommend you hop on over to the new members section for an intro.
Have to respectfully disagree with the CWD comment.....pretty sure its been there since the mid 80s but Arkansa was a state that did not test for it......they started testing when the elk transplants started. Regardless unless you eat brains or spinal fluid your safe.
Welcome.
http://www.cwdmyths.com/
Have to respectfully disagree with the CWD comment.....pretty sure its been there since the mid 80s but Arkansa was a state that did not test for it......they started testing when the elk transplants started. Regardless unless you eat brains or spinal fluid your safe.
Welcome.
http://www.cwdmyths.com/
Fink
Veteran member
Very cool. Sig, have you had a chance to go look for the elk at Peck Ranch in Missouri yet? I'll be down that way in a week or so, not sure I'll make it to PR, but I do love that we have a growing population in our state!
stumpy waters
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- Sep 25, 2015
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Feel free to disagree and no offense that you do, but you may want to study the situation before disagreeing too much. Yes it's been here since the 80's - when they brought the elk in.
They have supposedly been testing for a while, but yes they have missed it. Guess where all the cases are though? In the elk area. They did a massive study over the last 4 months and identified a ton of cases. They established a new 'CWD' zone, guess where it is? Surrounding the elk area. And they have created a core elk zone of 5 counties and opened season on the elk during regular deer season if they wander out of those 5 counties.
The disease had to come from somewhere and it is very evident where the problem came from. They loaded up elk from a state with CWD (Colorado) and brought them to Arkansas. The AGFC will never publicly admit that it was the elk, but it's obvious and there are a lot of folks that work form them that know and believe it. That's not just hearsay or rumor, I live here and know a lot of them.
As far as me worrying about it? Not at all. I hunt states that have it nothing will change for me here.
It's just a shame they brought it here just for the sake of having a couple of hundred elk.
Slugz
Veteran member
Interesting perspective. What's your thoughts on the Eastern elk (Cervus elaphus canadensis) vanishing in the late 1850's I believe? Or the re introduced Black Mountain herd that was made up of Rocky Mountain Elk (Cervus canadensis nelsoni) vanishing in the 1950s? Im guessing by your comments you are against the re introduction of them.
I'm of the theory that all TSE (transmissible spongiform encephalopathy) based diseases have been around for a very very very long time.....the main reason us humans even found it was due to poor slaughter house techniques of farmed elk/deer/cattle/sheep
Just like in these other animals, the protein-based infectious agents or (prions) cause the characteristic spongy degeneration of the brain. BSE or mad cow is also in that group (bovine spongiform encephalopathy) Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease in humans has been directly linked also to the ingestion of beef products contaminated with central nervous system tissue. Now thats the class room thoughts on it.....my boots on the ground comments would be "I see more blue tounge in deer then CWD in WY/CO" " and have yet to have eyes on a CWD case in elk in the wild" I think due to cats/predators taking them as soon as they are weak enough.
Regardless, welcome to EF and good luck this fall! Lots of great people and info here from all over the states. Welcome
stumpy waters
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- Sep 25, 2015
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Don't make too many assumptions.
I was never against re-establishing the elk. However, I think it was completely stupid to bring elk in from a state known to have CWD and just hope for the best that they don't bring it with them. Granted it may have shown up in Arkansas eventually regardless, but apparently you cannot test a live animal for CWD. So you have no idea if the elk you are bringing in carry the disease or not. Now we have it, estimates are it's been here since around the time the elk arrived, and the area they found it is limited around the elk. There is no proof but the circumstantial evidence is crippling.
I do think it's cool to see them, however they have wreaked havoc on a lot of private property in the area they live. There are a lot of people that hate them and this situation didn't help. Listening to some of the private land owners that now have to deal with them, you can understand where they are coming from.
Also, while some argue that the elk were just 're-established' the question remains - were they really? Some biologists recognize 6 sub-species of elk, some less, but most everyone seems to agree there are 6. What is now residing in Arkansas are the Rocky Mountain sub-species. What originally resided here were of the extinct Eastern sub-species. So did they re-establish elk? Or did they bring in a non-native species? It's an interesting debate.
Just FYI, one of the main elk biologists for the AGFC says all the other biologists are wrong and there are NO sub-species of elk. I guess managing his herd of 500 has made him the national expert? I'm no biologist, so maybe he is right and everyone else is wrong.
As far as your theory on CWD, I absolutely agree with everything you said. It has freaked a lot of people out around here. I think it is over-hyped.
My thoughts on the other elk projects you mentioned? I don't have any. I live in Arkansas. Asking my opinion about how elk or anything else is managed or projects to re-establish them in Colorado or any other state is irrelevant. It's like someone from New York having an opinion on how green timber duck hunting should be managed in Arkansas.
That's one reason I have never posted anything on here (until Arkansas came up which is something I do know a little about).
I don't live out west. I am a guest out there and just appreciate the opportunity to come out experience a different part of the country. The last thing I will ever do is have an opinion on how things should be done where I am a guest.
I do appreciate the welcome and the conversation!