Lovaas, Allan L. 1973. History of Elk Management in Wind Cave National Park. 20 p.

Abstract

The policy of the National Park Service is to maintain ungulate populations of levels the range will carry in good health without impairment to soil, vegetation, or habitats of other species (National Park Service 1968:25). When ungulate populations in National Parks and Monuments (Natural Areas) are not controlled naturally or through public hunting outside area boundaries, live-trapping surplus animals for transplanting elsewhere is the preferred method of control and direct reduction through shooting carried out by Service personnel is the least preferred method (ibid.). This paper discusses briefly the history of elk (Cervus canadensis) in Wind Cave National Park, South Dakota, including various population control efforts, and, in more detail, the cooperative elk live-trapping program initiated in 1970 by the park, the Jicarilla Apache Indian Tribe, the Oglala Sioux Indian Tribe, the Bureau of Indian Affairs, and the South Dakota Department of Game, Fish and Parks. Unless otherwise referenced, the information in this paper was taken from files at Wind Cave National Park. Negotiations which culminated in the cooperative elk live-trapping program were led by L.F. McClanahan, National Park Service; J.B. Woody, Bureau of Sport Fisheries and Wildlife (advisor to the Jicarilla Tribe); J.W. Kirk, Oglala Tribe; R.A. Hodgins, V. Johnson and W.A. Broer, South Dakota Department of Game, Fish and Parks. The manuscript was reviewed by those agencies and tribes, and was read by J.C. O'Brien and N.J. Reid, National Park Service, and P.T. Bromley, Unversity of Calgary. This paper originated through a suggestion by Dr. T.S. Baskett, Bureau of Sport Fisheries and Wildlife.