Trekking into the wild, DNR Biologist Laine Stowell is at home covered in camouflage. They're out in that direction. Getting closer. Once we can get up to where we can see, I'll start calling to see if we can draw him to us. But he's not very far away. In early fall, under gray skies and a steady rain, Laine is trying to lure into the open an elusive bull elk.
high-pitched elk bugle call
It's mating season and this call of the wild echoes through the Chequamegon- Nicolet National Forest.
high-pitched elk bugle call
On this morning, the bull elk that Laine is pursuing is a no show. But that doesn't stop Laine from trying. A lot of hard work, a lot of hours, persistence. When we were calf searching, it's a 12-hour-a-day job. Seven days a week, which you only get paid 40 hours a week. So it's a labor of love.
radio tracking reciever beeps
Back in his truck Laine, as he's done for more than 16 years, turns to his big antenna to track Wisconsin's wild elk. I'm kind of at an advantage in that I've got radio telemetry. A good share of the elk are radioed. And even, even with my advantage, maybe one quarter of the time that I go out do I see elk.
radio emits white noise and an elk's beeper signal
This is bull 305. This is the biggest bull in the group, in this part of the herd. He's 900 pounds, probably 900 plus. This is cow 357. There's close to a dozen animals in this particular group. Elk have a long history in Wisconsin. They roamed free until loggers and hunters forced them out before the turn of the 19th century. We're bringing back an animal that once was abundant here. It'll be successful if we have a viable population and my grandchildren or my grandchildren's grandchildren are able to come and see and hear evidence of elk in Wisconsin. Wisconsin's elk reintroduction got a boost in 1995 when Michigan donated 25 elk. From those 25 elk, the herd has now grown to about 160, 170 elk. We are planning to bring 75 elk from Kentucky over the next two years.
bugle call
Those new elk will help diversify the gene pool and boost Wisconsin's elk population, which has been hard hit in recent years by winter weather and natural predators. Giving the elk space and also attracting tourists is a balancing act for the DNR. For people coming into that area to view elk, millions of dollars are generated by that. They can hear the bull's bugle.
high pitched bugle call
We saw their tracks. We saw their antler rubs. There were trees that were bent over by a 900 pound bull. A bunch of them headed out that way. One of the most important defense mechanisms that elk have is their sense of smell. So I was puffing some talcum powder in the air to see which-- where the wind direction was so that we kept downwind of the elk. If we got upwind of the elk, game over. We weren't going to get close to them. Even for a trained tracker like Laine, spotting an elk in the cover of a dense forest can be difficult. And the area where they roam is enormous. The goal for the Clam Lake Elk Range, which is 1,620 square miles in size, is 1,400 elk. For Laine, working with this native animal is personal. I wouldn't be doing it if it wasn't personal. I feel like I know them pretty good. You do lose some of those animals. But... and that's why we don't give them names. We give them numbers. It's a challenge to keep perspective. With the help of Laine's work, elk are at home once again in Wisconsin's Northwoods. Over the past 16 years that I've been the elk biologist, we've learned a great deal from this herd.
high-pitched elk bugle call
The bringing back of a species that disappeared is righting a wrong. And that's probably one of the highest callings of a wildlife biologist.
elk bugle call
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