Ranch elk might be illegal hybrid
BOISE – A domesticated elk from an eastern Idaho hunting ranch where some animals escaped in August has tested positive as a red deer hybrid, which are illegal in Idaho.
The ranch’s owner, Rex Rammell, was skeptical of the result. Idaho Department of Agriculture officials also say they’re retesting in case the result was a false positive.
Hybrids can produce large antlers more quickly than pure elk, but they’re banned in Idaho for fear they could pollute the wild elk gene pool. Elk are Idaho’s premier game animal and attract millions of dollars to the economy.
In August, up to 160 elk fled Rammell’s Chief Joseph hunting preserve near Rexburg. That prompted Gov. Jim Risch to order an emergency hunt, saying the elk could spread inferior genes or disease to wild herds near Yellowstone National Park.
Since then, state Department of Agriculture employees have tested more than 90 of Rammell’s animals, including about 36 shot after their flight and 60 live animals from Rammell’s enclosure now in quarantine, spokesman Wayne Hoffman said. Hoffman cautioned against jumping to conclusions on the lone test, due to frequent occurrences of false positives and because the elk in question came to Idaho from another state in 1997 with a certificate vouching for its genetic purity.
“The fact that only one elk tested positive, and the fact that we have certification that it’s already been tested free of red deer, should cause anyone to go back and reverify,” said Hoffman, whose agency regulates Idaho’s game farms. “There are a lot of clues here that give us pause.”
The state didn’t immediately say if the elk was a bull or a cow.
Follow-up tests are being conducted by labs in California and Canada.
Rammell, a veterinarian who has accused Risch of violating his private property rights with the emergency hunt, was dubious of the test result. It would be very unusual for just a single animal to test positive when it lived in a herd that offered ample opportunity to breed and produce offspring, he said.
“You can’t have just one elk with red deer genes in a herd,” Rammell said. “I doubt it’s accurate. They could go back to the herd that it came from to see if there are any red deer in those. I’m sure it’s a false positive.”
Rammell said he has sold the elk operation where he charged $6,000 to kill a large-antlered bull. His former animals have gone to another elk breeder and his 168-acre preserve is now owned by a California real-estate investor, he said.
Foes of so-called “shooter buck” operations like Rammell’s hope to capitalize on the elk escape to persuade the Idaho Legislature to enact a ban similar to those already in effect in neighboring Wyoming and Montana.
Idaho game farm owners argue that raising the specter of disease or genetic impurities in domestic elk amounts to fear-mongering that demonizes their industry.