Emaciated animals are continuing to die at the Dell Creek Feedground, which may prove to be an unwelcome testbed illustrating how always-deadly chronic wasting disease propagates through elk herds when they’re tightly congregated over hay for months at a time.
Two weeks ago, the Wyoming Game and Fish Department sent word that its second and third cases of CWD had been discovered on an elk feedground — both detected in cow carcasses at the Dell Creek Feedground in the Bondurant area. Those cases were labeled “absolutely concerning,” and already more dead elk have been found there carrying the prion disease.
“At Dell [Creek], with the continual animals that are being found dead, it looks like we’re probably further along in the epidemic cycle,” Wyoming State Wildlife Veterinarian Sam Allen told WyoFile.
To date, she said, no more CWD-infected elk have been discovered at the Pinedale-area Scab Creek Feedground — site of the first confirmed case of the disease on a feedground.
But at the confined Dell Creek feeding area in the Hoback Basin, the diseased carcasses are clearly accumulating. A 5-year-old cow suspected killed by the disease was discovered on Saturday, the state vet said. Its remains had been too consumed to test. Then on Sunday, a bull estimated at 3 years old was found dead. On Tuesday, Allen’s colleagues at the Wyoming Wildlife Health Laboratory confirmed the bull, which was noticeably thin, tested positive for CWD, a disease that U.S. Geological Survey modeling predicts will collapse Wyoming’s fed elk populations.
There’s reason to believe prevalence may soon skyrocket. Chronic wasting disease, Allen said, doesn’t usually increase “on a curve.”
“Most of the time it just goes straight up,” she said. “I would expect [prevalence] in this population to go a little bit faster than in some of our other elk populations, considering how feedgrounds are set up.”
The age of the infected animals is notable, said Justin Binfet, Game and Fish’s deputy chief of wildlife. There’s no way to know for certain that the degenerative neurological disease killed the 3-year-old bull directly — because its death could be from something else — but the possibility is “really problematic,” he said. That would suggest the animal contracted CWD when it was just a calf.
“That shows you the transmission potential may be elevated,” Binfet said. “At lower prevalence, in general, you don’t see a lot of CWD in younger age class animals. But as prevalence gets more and more substantial and the herds are further along that epidemic curve, then you tend to see more cases in younger animals.”
This didn’t happen this spring. It’s been incubating for two years, and now we’re just starting to receive the results.”
Hank edwards
Wildlife disease experts can deduce a lot from three, potentially four CWD-positive elk occurring within the same small piece of terrain in a region where disease otherwise exists at trace levels. It’s an adequate sample size to make educated guesses about what’s going on, said Hank Edwards, a longtime Wildlife Health Laboratory supervisor who retired in 2023.
“If these elk are dying — or at least circling the drain — right now, they were infected over two years ago,” Edwards said. “That means that the horse is long out of the barn. This didn’t happen this spring. It’s been incubating for two years, and now we’re just starting to receive the results.”
‘Very worrisome’
The accumulation of chronic wasting disease prions and the possibility of fast-rising prevalence at the Dell Creek Feedground specifically is “very worrisome,” Edwards said. Prions can bind with soil and grass and live in the environment for years.
“Those elk are in such tight proximity to one another,” he said. “It’s an extremely dense, crowded feedground just because of the topography.”
The 32.5-acre state-run site is located on the Bridger-Teton National Forest, and operates under a disputed permit. Bondurant often maintains a deep snowpack well into the spring, and right across the road from the Dell Creek Feedground is a cattle ranch: the Little Jennie. That combination creates a high likelihood of elk causing damage to private ranchland and intermingling with cattle, which can and has led to brucellosis outbreaks in Bondurant livestock.
Essentially, wildlife managers don’t have many responses at their disposal to stem the disease in the short term.
“We’re kind of stuck,” said Brandon Scurlock, Game and Fish’s Pinedale regional wildlife coordinator. “A few of those ranches around Dell Creek have had brucella, and so we have to be sensitive to that.”
As the CWD epidemic has ramped up, Game and Fish staff have held internal meetings to review what can be done. One measure is “staying on top of carcasses,” Scurlock said.
“We’ll try to get those prions off the feedgrounds as fast as we can,” he said. “We can euthanize any obviously symptomatic elk, because we don’t want them shedding prions. That’s what we can do right now — and that’s what’s what we are doing.”
Limited options
Longer term, wildlife managers can make more wholesale changes to the feeding regime at Dell Creek — or any other feedground. Adjustments, however, will have to be agreed to by ranchers, outfitters and other historic feeding proponents, because Game and Fish’s feedground management plan requires building consensus. The governor, because of intervention from the Wyoming Legislature, must sign off on any closures.
Game and Fish can also adjust its herd objectives and hunting seasons in response to the disease. The Dell Creek Feedground, which hosted just over 400 elk this winter, falls within the Upper Green River Elk Herd.
The early-stage CWD epidemic, Scurlock said, “will be a part of the conversations.”
Although changes that could limit the worst effects of CWD may face political headwinds, Allen, the state vet, struck an optimistic tone.
“My hope is that … we’re going to rally and go forward and do the right thing,” she said. “I think Wyoming is capable of that. Time will tell.”
It’s not prudent, Edwards said, to wait and see what happens on the Dell Creek Feedground under the status quo. That being said, Game and Fish is in a “tough” spot, he said.
“If you stop feeding, those elk are going to disperse and they’re infected — so they’re going to bring this disease with them,” Edwards said. “But that’s going to happen in the spring regardless. They’re going to leave that feedground.”
When that happens, he said, the CWD-positive cluster of elk from the Dell Creek Feedground are bound to intermingle with other elk herds, or with mule deer or moose.
“It’s a serious worry that these elk are going to further spread this disease across western Wyoming,” Edwards said.
What I see is that large predators completely cleaned the carcasses of meat over night. Could they have killed these elk thru natural predation.? The Dell Creek Feed Ground Manager would have seen these weak elk and reported it to the Jackson or Pinedale offices. CWD is found just about everywhere now if you look hard enough for it and take a large enough sampling from populations.
It is tragic what is happening…problem is that diseased animals don’t become symptomatic to us for years so they are in the concentrated population at the feedgrounds eating and slobbering in the same hay others are eating. They are shedding disease in their droppings so the entire area becomes a source for disease.
Predators like wolves can detect and remove animals that are weakened. Scavengers like coyotes can clean up carcasses and they don’t pass on the disease.
We are failing to realistically address the problem. Elk should roam freely. We should provide forage in all seasons, and allow predators and scavengers to do what they are designed to do.
Couple of curiosities for me. The feeder at Dell Creek has been there for around 30 years. He has seen a lot of elk. It’s curious to me he didn’t see these emaciated elk stumbling around the feedground before they died and reported it to G&F. After all he is out there everyday.
Secondly, I find it curious that this outbreak is on the Dell Creek feedground. I believe this is one the U.S. Forest Service was not going to renew the permit on???
Change from the feedground model needs to happen right away. High fence in the livestock during winter and spring, not the elk; that maintains separation to mitigate risk of brucellosis transmission from elk to livestock and mitigates depredation of hay by elk. It also allows wild elk to free range like deer, and like elk do elsewhere in Wyoming. It’s only in 3 (out of 23) Wyoming counties where elk are fed. There are funding sources to help mitigate wildlife-livestock conflicts. And, like others have said, the agencies and the public need to conserve predators to help cull sick elk. The G&F and the public need to manage herds according to the carrying capacity of native range, which itself should be managed to leave enough residual forage for wintering wildlife after summer/fall livestock grazing.
When I and others have proposed that the presence of predators (primarily wolves and lions) could mediate the CWD problems by dispersing large elk herds and culling the diseased sick we here that the predators would only exasperate the problem by spreading the prions. I wonder if there is any proof of this? I’ve read that CWD prions are destroyed when elk meat is digested by a mountain lion. I’ve also read that in Africa prions in infected meat digested by hyenas (which are a canine species similar to wolves) are also destroyed. I’ve asked G&F if CWD prions have been found in wolf scat and have yet to receive an answer, indicating to me that it’s never been tested or that they don’t want to release that information for some reason. My obvious point is that increasing the prevalence of predators could be an effective and natural method for reducing this horrid disease.
Listen folks. This very thing was predicted to happen at least 15 years ago if feeding of elk persisted. All done for the almighty tourist $$$$ it brought in. Day of reckoning is at hand.
In fairness to Wyo G&F, almost the entire country has CWD in the deer population and no state agency anywhere knows what to do about it besides a lot of testing. If the infectious prion is as persistent as currently believed then there probably isn’t much anyone can do besides count on a genetic predisposition in some individual ungulates to not be affected by the prions (Survival of the Fittest) I agree with Jack Ginter. Elk gather in big dense herds after the rut and throughout the winter in areas with no feed grounds.
How much of this infected tissue will be carried from pillar to post by scavengers and predators? Both wildlife and domestic animals will be at risk. The genie is out of the box now and appears to get worse every year. Is there any information on the effect of this disease on predators themselves as far as mortality goes?
Publicly owned elk, on publicly owned feeding grounds being fed with hay bought with public money – from hunting and angling license sales. Game and Fish may be forced to abandon many of the feeding grounds and disperse the elk which could force them to winter on private land – primarily irrigated bottom land. Then the problems multiply with numerous animal damage payments in addition to Game and Fish employees trying to haze the elk off of private land. Lots of fencing around hay yards and hay stacks, destroyed fencing. Looks like the situation will progressively get worse with each passing year – maybe science can make a break through – a very difficult problem for Game and Fish.
Please go to save the elk lander Wyoming on Facebook.
All the videos of the elk running are because they are being shot at or chased.
You can’t feed 500 elk on 32 acres and not spread disease.
Joe, watch a herd of 500 elk in the winter anywhere. They travel, gather, bed, feed, etc. just as close in proximity off a feed lot as on one. Try 500 +/- elk on less than 5 acres on the steppes above the Snake River or Antelope flats day after day before they move to the refuge.
For years the public has been told, “don’t feed the wildlife”…so why did/does Wy G&F not listen to their own BMP. One answer is possibly that the $$$ realized from the sale of licenses generates much needed bucks to support the department. Perhaps another reason is to placate ranchers who complain about elk in their hay stacks. Either way, the actions of WY G & F have created a dependency for those herds to dine at the feedlots. I liken it to going thru the McDonalds drive thru window, they do it cause it’s easy. Unfortunately actions have consequences and this is part of the cycle of life……how it plays out is anyone’s guess.
“We’ll try to get those prions off the feedgrounds as fast as we can,” he said. “We can euthanize any obviously symptomatic elk, because we don’t want them shedding prions. That’s what we can do right now — and that’s what’s what we are doing.”
In other words, G&F is doing nothing. The prions are already on the feedground, otherwise known as a petri dish for disease, having been shedded for years through urine, faeces, and carcasses, and will be still be there when the elk have all died.
Consensus to come to a solution? Another word for that is capitulation. G&F has been capitulating to the Stockgrowers for decades. We’re going to lose our herds as a consequence.
I suspect that research is going to have to shift toward how to eliminate prions from the environment. In the meantime, we’re going to have to treat feedgrounds the way nuclear sites are treated.
Robert, have you ever observed elk herds in the winter?
Their wintering/migration habits of staying in close proximity to each other doesnt change whether they are on a feed lot or not. Watch a string of 1-2000 elk migrating in a single file line for miles, then bedding down together in clusters of 2,3,500 and tell me that the prions arent a factor in their natural habits.
My local elk herd is the Wiggins Fork Herd, which winters on the East Fork Wildlife Habitat Area between Dubois and the Wind River Indian Reservation; some of these elk move into the Reservation and back. I watch these elk all winter. They are constantly on the move, joining in larger herds and then dividing into smaller herds and bands. This is their natural winter herding behavior, supported by extensive habitat. There’s never been feeding here. Quite a difference west of the Continental Divide. Feedgrounds reflect criminal negligence because they pack elk all winter into unnaturally high densities.
The winter range on the East Fork and the winter range in Bondurant are two different worlds. The East Fork has some of the best elk winter range in Wyoming because of the lack of snow, Bondurant, not so much. If you want to maintain an elk population in the high mountain valleys of Western Wyoming when the snow is three or four feet deep, you either help them through the winter or have no elk.
That’s right: the East Fork and the Bondurant area are different. The East Fork, indeed, the entire upper Wind River Valley, is native winter range and has been for thousands of years. The Hoback and the Bondurant area have never been winter range, for the simple reason of snow–lots of it.
Elk don’t want to winter in high mountain valleys; they want to migrate to lower areas like the Little Colorado and Red Deserts where they can spread out to graze and hunker down in low densities. That’s how it’s been for thousands of years. We all know this, or should. The great biologist Olaus Murie, who studied elk on the National Elk Refuge and in the surrounding mountains from the late 1920s to the early 1940s before he resigned in disgust over the mismanagement of elk, wrote about the migrations in the Elk of North America, published in 1951. There is no excuse for not knowing about the traditional elk migrations from the high country to the low country, and back again. The facts have been out there for decades. (Of course, we’re now living in the age of alternative facts. That’s a problem for science as well as society).
Every feedground in the Upper Green River Basin, along the fronts of the Wyoming Range, the Gros Ventres, and the Wind River Range, is there for one reason: to obstruct elk from migrating to lower areas where the ranches and their haystacks and cattle feedlines are. G&F has put these feedgrounds in what we might call transitional range, through which elk and other ungulates (mule deer, pronghorn) have traditionally moved in the fall to get away from the winter snows of the high country. Elk don’t want to be there for the winter, but we force them to stay there because that’s what the ranchers want and have demanded since the 1940s. The consequence is stacking elk up like cordwood in abnormal densities that create conditions for diseases like necrotic stomatitis, brucellosis, and now chronic wasting disease. It’s all deliberate and fundamentally irrational. It’s a situation in which elk have no future.
Is it possible to manage ranches in ways that allow elk to continue on to the Deserts as they did before settlement? It is–this is after all a fence out state–but so far ranchers refuse to adopt such measures, primarily due to their cost, but also to ranchers’ stubbornness. Those costs are then passed on to the public.
The fact is, we are approaching a point where it’s either cattle or elk. I would prefer not to go there. But unless ranchers abandon their intransigence over feedgrounds, we’re going to lose elk. And the livestock industry won’t be able to spin its undeniable responsibility for the loss.
And of course, G&F and the State of Wyoming will be subject to a public trust lawsuit for its part in the deliberate destruction of a vital public resource for the benefit of a private industry.
So is there a sensible alternative other than euthanizing this heard? We can’t make it a forever high fence captive heard so what is the foreseeable outcome?
Euthanizing an entire herd for 1 confirmed case??? This is as stupid as culling 200,000 chickens because 4 have the flu. Game and Fish has a plan, put down and test any animals that show signs/symptoms.
CWD has proven to not be as communicable in Elk as it is in Deer in other areas of the state.
Elk with naturally gather in close proximity during the winter regardless if there is a feed ground or not. This is one more story trying to demonize feed lots in order to boost public sentiment to end the feeding. You will then see thousands of dead elk in one bad winter rather than one here and MAYBE one there.