More than a dozen hungry elk perish after breaking into Fish and Game stack yard
Sometime this winter, hungry elk broke through a fence surrounding an Idaho Fish and Game stack yard in the Indian Fork portion of Tex Creek Wildlife Management Area, which is located about 15 miles east of Idaho Falls.
It ended up being a fateful trip.
The elk ate out of the bottom of the haystack, causing it to destabilize and collapse. A total of 16 elk perished in the incident, appearing to have been crushed by the falling one-ton bales or trampled to death by other elk. A report from a concerned citizen initially prompted an investigation into the elk carcasses.
The stack yard contained hay left over from an emergency feeding operation conducted by Fish and Game in 2016 to keep 3,500 elk on Tex Creek after the Henry’s Creek Fire burned more than 52,000 acres.
Fish and Game said it plans to clean up and remove the remaining hay and fencing around the stack yard this summer. The elk carcasses have already been removed from the enclosure and left for scavengers.
