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Mark Freeman Commentary Police pursue elk poachers Police are looking for two unidentified men suspected of illegally shooting and wounding a five-point bull elk in the Sterling Creek area in late October, when the area was closed to rifle hunting for elk. The elk was euthanized Oct. 28 by an Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife biologist who initially suspected that the large animal was hit by a car. Gleaners preparing the carcass for food found a bullet in it, and the Oregon State Police began investigating the case. Authorities last week received information of two men claiming to a witness that they shot at an elk the morning before the wounded elk was found. "They are the most likely suspects," says OSP Senior Trooper Pat McNeilly. "If not, it's awful darn coincidental." There is no legal October elk hunting in the Applegate area, which has very few elk, and elk-poaching cases there are very rare, McNeilly says. "It's unusual because there are not many elk in that area, and it's a darn shame when someone takes a poke at one out of season,'' McNeilly says. A reward of up to $500 is being offered for information leading to the arrest and conviction of the poachers. The Applegate Unit falls under coast-elk rifle hunting seasons, which differ from elk seasons in the Cascades, including the eastern part of Jackson County. The Applegate's general elk season this year was in two periods, one running Nov. 13-16 and the other running Nov. 20-26. The case began when a rural southwest Medford couple found a five-point bull elk in their pond off Griffin Lane on the morning of Oct. 28. ODFW biologist Mark Vargas was called to the pond to check it, and he determined the elk was injured and likely standing in the water to reduce the weight on an injured back-right leg. After the elk's condition worsened, the landowners called Vargas back that night. Vargas later shot and killed the animal after it was apparent the elk's wounds would be fatal. The elk was taken to the Gleaning Network in Central Point, where employees found a bullet later identified as a .243-caliber bullet, McNeilly says. The case took a strange twist when one of the Gleaning Network employees told an acquaintance of the elk and the bullet. That acquaintance remembered meeting two men on Oct. 27 while hunting in the Anderson Butte area, near where the elk was later found. The witness told police last week that he saw two men who appeared excited and talked of shooting at an elk -- an admission the witness considered odd because the area was closed to elk hunting at the time, police said. The two men were described as white males in their mid-20s to mid-30s. One was about 6-foot tall and weighing 250-280 pounds, with brown hair and wearing camouflage. The other was about 5-10 and 160-170 pounds, with short blond hair. The heavier suspect was driving a late-model Nissan Pathfinder, colored blue or gray. The reward is being offered through the Turn In Poachers, or TIP, program that is funded by the Oregon Hunters Association and managed through the Oregon State Police. Anyone with information on the case is urged to telephone McNeilly at (541) 776-6236, or the statewide TIP hotline at 1-800-452-7888. (Staff writer Mark Freeman covers the outdoors for the Mail Tribune. Call him at 776-4470, or e-mail him at: [email protected] ) Outdoor Journal main page Mail Tribune Copyright � The Mail Tribune 1999, Medford, Oregon USA