WABAUNSEE COUNTY (KSNT) - That's not your typical Kansas deer.
On Wednesday the Wabaunsee County Sheriff's Office and Fire District 7 shared photos of an elk casualty involved in a crash in eastern Kansas.
According to the sheriff's office, the elk was struck on I-70 near mile marker 335 just southeast of Paxico, KS. The sheriff's office said it would give the elk to a family enrolled in the sheriff's office tag program.
"They should be good on meat in their freezer until their grandkids kids graduate from college in like 2110 or something," Undersheriff Eric Kirsch wrote on Facebook.
According to the 2022-2023 elk harvest report from the Kansas Department of Wildlife and Parks (KDWP), elk were released onto the Fort Riley Military Reservation in 1986, about 35 miles west of Paxico. The herd continued to increase in size until they started causing crop damage to landowners. As a result, the KDWP issued 200 elk hunting permits in 1999 and 2000.
In 2022 it was reported that 40 elk were harvested in Kansas with 25 taken with 'any-elk' permits and 15 taken on 'antlerless-only' elk permits. The KDWP said in the last five years elk had been harvested in 1/4 of the counties in Kansas.
For 2022-2023 the elk harvest by county was the following:
"Rut is starting for our Elk Gentlemen friends seeking autumn cowpanionship & they will travel great distances for that ruminant pumpkin spice yo so please, PLEASE be vigilant on the roadways starting now," Kirsch wrote on Facebook.
The Sheriff's Office told 27 News nobody was injured in the crash. To read more about the Wabaunsee County salvage tag program, click here.
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