Reintroduction efforts for elk began in Wisconsin during the 1930s, but weren’t successful until the second attempt in the mid-1990s. There are two elk herds in the state today, and the most recent population estimate was just over 600 elk. (Contributed photograph)
Stories this photo appears in:
Bugles in the Badger State
2026 post-calving population estimates
As within the last couple years, roughly 25,000 state residents recently submitted an elk tag application before the May 31 deadline. To remember a time when elk were on Wisconsin’s landscape prior to successful reintroduction, you have to go all the way back to 1886. That year, the last known record of an elk in the state was contained in a shipping receipt to a meat market after an elk was harvested just west of Stevens Point.
WEATHER SPONSORED BY
250 X 250 AD
250 X 250 AD
E-Editions
250 X 250 AD
Events
250 X 250 AD