Document text
Final chapter falls on famed elk By Mark Freeman A female Roosevelt elk that gained fame six summers ago for setting up residence near downtown Medford has become a casualty of this year�s sport-hunting seasons. The cow elk that Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife biologists rescued in August 1994 from a patch of Bear Creek along Riverside Avenue in Medford was shot and killed early last week by a bowhunter legally hunting in a field near Roxy Ann Peak. The elk was captured and relocated that summer by biologists with a combination of ingenuity and folly that would make Marlin Perkins issue a don�t-try-this-at-home disclaimer. When bowhunter Brandon Bowman of Medford shot the elk two weeks ago near Roxy Ann Peak, it was still wearing the ear tags and radio collar fitted by biologist John Thiebes before the animal�s release six years ago. The story�s abrupt ending is considered a successful one by Thiebes. "Our goal was to get the elk out of town before it hurt itself or hurt someone who might hit it on I-5," Thiebes says. "Hunting is part of the system," Thiebes says. "So this is a good story." The 2-1/2-year-old cow elk was something of a celebrity throughout the summer of 1994 when it took a strip of Bear Creek in downtown Medford and called it home. For two months, the elk wandered along the Bear Creek Greenway, munching leaves near the Rogue Valley Mall and spending its evenings behind Hef�s Burger Bar off Riverside Avenue. The animal regularly dipped in and out of traffic on McAndrews Road, and bicycle-riding police regularly spotted it along the Greenway path. But fears that the elk would get struck and killed either on I-5, Riverside Avenue or Biddle Road caused ODFW biologists to do an urban capture-the-elk exercise. Thiebes recalls that biologists were fearful that simply darting the elk with a tranquilizer would send the dazed animal, which was then the size of a mule, wobbling into nearby traffic. So they first set up an octagonal corral-trap and baited it with local produce, which successfully lured the animal inside. Once trapped, they tranquilized the elk, fitted it with a blindfold, whisked it into a trailer and hauled it to the wilds atop the Dead Indian Plateau. But the task went awry when the animal, lying down and still blind-folded while Thiebes straddled its body, abruptly awoke and pitched Thiebes skyward. "It tossed me into a camera on a tripod and started walking away," Thiebes says. Thiebes gave chase, ripping off the blindfold and dashing to safety before the elk could slash him with its sharp hooves. "I�ve had some memorable trappings and relocatings," Thiebes says, "but this was one of the tops." The elk then joined a Dead Indian herd, yet regularly wandered back toward Medford to vacation in the Roxy Ann Peak area, according to ODFW biologist Merv Wolfer. It was on private lands near there that Bowman found and shot the elk with his bow during the September archery season. The elk was about 8 years old, which is still relatively young in the Roosevelt elk world, Wolfer says. It is not uncommon for hunters holding cow-elk tags to shoot elk that are more than 20 years old. Still, Thiebes says, biologists are not saddened that this elk�s weird story ended when it did. "It had six good reproductive years, and now it�s providing food for a family," Thiebes says. "It�s a good story." Staff writer Mark Freeman covers the outdoors for the Mail Tribune. Call him at 776-4470, or e-mail him at [email protected] ) Mail Tribune Home | Ottaway Newspapers, Inc. | Dow Jones & Co., Inc. | Privacy | Contact Us Copyright � 2000 Mail Tribune, Inc.