Idaho officials found a massive ‘elk boneyard’ with at least 15 skulls. What happened?
The grisly remains of at least 15 elk lie at the base of Craig Mountain, near the Washington-Idaho border.
Idaho Fish and Game officials discovered the “elk boneyard” earlier this month. They were tracing a signal from an elk’s radio collar that indicated the animal had died.
“All of this is elk,” a wildlife official said in a video of the gruesome grave. “At least 15 heads and four collars found.”
The elk were caught in a landslide while walking across the mountain side. Broken rock and boulders the size of beach balls brought the creatures down almost 1,000 feet, senior wildlife technician Mark Shepard said in a press release.
Idaho Fish and Game use radio collars to track wildlife location, movement, and death. When officials suspect an animal has died, they visit the animal’s last location to understand the cause of death.
Avalanches and rock slides, like the ones that crushed the elk, are natural events, Shepard said in the press release.
Idaho Fish and Game estimated that the state has more than 120,000 elk.
