Lichen Could Be Culprit in Elk Death

Wyo. vets find clue in 50-year-old journal

March 16, 2004
By Theo Stein
Denver Post Environment Writer

Wyoming wildlife veterinarians are examining an obscure little plant that may be responsible for the mysterious deaths of almost 300 elk in the southern Red Desert this winter.

Officials began looking at the plant, actually a lichen, last week after identifying it in the stomachs of elk found collapsed across a remote 50-square-mile swath of the state's southern tier.

Although the big deer could no longer stand, many thrashed about for days before being euthanized by biologists or succumbing on their own.

Suspicion about the lichen rose after a University of Wyoming toxicologist discovered a 50-year-old report from a journal of cattle and sheep that suffered from similar symptoms after eating the lichen.

"We need to be a little cautious and not overinterpret what we know," said Dr. Walt Cook, the Wyoming Game and Fish veterinarian leading the inquiry. "But it is one of the suspects we are pursing aggressively."

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