RAWLINS, Wyo., March 13 (UPI) -- Scientists are trying to solve the mystery of why close to 300 elk have died in a region of Wyoming since February.
"I've never seen anything like this, never even heard of a large die-off in elk in this extreme," said Joe Nemick, a wildlife management coordinator who has been with the Wyoming Game and Fish Department for 37 years. "Elk are generally pretty hardy animals."
Of the 100,000 estimated elk in Wyoming, about 800 usually spend the winter in the Red Desert about 150 miles west of Cheyenne, along with wild horses, antelope, deer and some grazing cattle. The other animals do not appear to be ill.
Biologists have ruled out chronic wasting disease, brucellosis and other bacterial and viral diseases; poisoning by a toxic metal, by toxins in drinking water or from coal-bed methane gas drilling; salt poisoning; calcium or magnesium deficiency; and parasites, The New York Times reported Saturday.
Scientists are focusing on whether recent drought conditions produced a toxin in a plant, on a plant or in the soil or that some stress caused the elk to overexert themselves.
