It was a good shot, and a good kill, but the Idaho man who thought he was hunting inside the Bridger-Teton National Forest actually was inside Grand Teton National Park when he killed the bison. And hunting bison in the national park is illegal.
Park officials say Daniel Kluth, 48, of Kimberly, Idaho, who had a permit to take a bison inside the national forest, killed the bull bison inside the park about 11 a.m. Sunday.
After the kill Mr. Kuth called on a hunt outfitter service to remove the bison for him. But once they were given the coordinates of the kill, the outfitters realized that put the hunter inside the national park, and they called park rangers.
Mr. Kluth cooperated with rangers and took them to the bison’s location, according to a park release. Rangers determined the approximate location of the killed bison to be 2 miles inside the park from the park’s boundary line to the east and 1 mile inside the park from boundary line to the south in the vicinity of Uhl Hill.
Rangers remind individuals hunting near the park boundary with the Bridger-Teton National Forest to be especially diligent in locating the park’s boundary prior to hunting, and to be sure that they are outside park lands before taking wildlife. It is the individual hunter’s responsibility to know where they are and where the park boundary lies.
Hunting is prohibited in Grand Teton National Park. Only those who have been issued a permit to participate in the park’s Elk Reduction Program can lawfully take wildlife in Grand Teton National Park. The Elk Reduction Program is a cooperative management tool used to regulate elk population numbers and was established by Congress in the 1950 enabling legislation that created Grand Teton National Park.
Visitors and park users are reminded that rangers are constantly on patrol, monitoring activities to ensure the safety and wellbeing of visitors and the park’s cultural and natural resources. To report an incident, please call the Teton Interagency Dispatch Center at
307-739-3301.
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Comments
I'm pretty sure that hunters like hunting near protected areas because the animals can be really good specimens when they spend most of their time in those areas. It seems like one heck of a risk though, given that it's too easy to lose track of where the boundary line is.
Didn't Evel Knievel once serve as a hunting guide in the area? I understand that he had excellent success (he guranteed results) because he took his clients into NPS land without telling them.