Elk in the northeast

Elk, regal racks sprouting skyward and heads held high, once were a common sight in Minnesota.

With the exception of the coniferous forest of the northeast where woodland caribou roamed, elk lived in Minnesota's hardwood forests and on its prairies.

Known as omashkooz by the Ojibwe and heȟáka by the Dakota, elk were important to the diet and culture of Native Americans.

Settlement and development have made it impossible for elk to return to their presettlement range and abundance.

Map showing current and past elk range in Minnesota

But retooled management of three small herds in northwestern Minnesota and an idea from the Fond du Lac Band of Lake Superior Chippewa that has become a legislatively funded project are intended to bring elk and their societal and ecological benefits back to a small portion of their former range.

Throughout Minnesota, the DNR will work closely with tribal governments, agricultural producers, local governments, communities, legislators, other state agencies, conservation groups and the public to identify concerns, implement ideas and develop solutions for successful elk management and expansion in Minnesota.

Facts & figures

A bull elk and calf

Learn about elk!

Get an overview of elk management in Minnesota and its direction in the northwest, ask questions and provide comments.

When: 6-8 p.m. on Tuesday, Sept. 10
Where: Northland Community and Technical College, Performance Art Theater, 1101 Highway 1 East, Thief River Falls

The approach

The long-term vision for elk management is to increase the population and expand the animal's range in a way that provides ecological, societal, cultural, tribal and recreational benefits while implementing measures that minimize potential concerns.

Three herds comprised of about 200 elk roam two areas of northwestern Minnesota.

An elk in a Kittson County wheat field

Two larger herds range near the Canadian border in Kittson County, with one herd spending some of the year in Manitoba, Canada. The smaller herd of about 30 animals ranges near Grygla in Marshall County.

The DNR strives to maintain a healthy, self-sustaining, managed northwestern Minnesota elk population that affords recreational viewing and hunting opportunities while actively addressing elk damage to crops.

Legislative changes enacted in 2024 allows the DNR to increase the size of one of Kittson County's elk herds by 30% and directs the DNR to work with local communities, governments and partners to enhance the size and range of Minnesota's elk population.

The Red Lake Nation asserted its off-reservation 1863 treaty rights and hunted elk in 2022 and 2023. The DNR is in conversation with the Red Lake Nation to determine how to support more elk hunting and the long-term health of the northwestern herds.

A bull elk in the woods

The DNR is working with the Fond du Lac Band of Lake Superior Chippewa to move 100-150 animals during the next three to five years from northwestern Minnesota to the Fond du Lac Reservation in Carlton and southern St. Louis counties.

The first animals are expected to be moved during spring 2026.

Animals would be extensively tested for disease before being relocated from northwestern Minnesota in stages as elk population numbers in northwestern Minnesota herds exceed population goals.

Map showing current and past elk range in Minnesota and location of northeast expansion

The band proposed establishment of a free-ranging elk herd in this area to allow the animal to once again play a role in the diet and culture of native peoples, provide hunting and viewing opportunities for native and non-native people and restore a big game species that likely will adapt well to climate change.

The DNR is excited about the potential to restore this native species to another portion of its historic range and looks forward to engagement with the local community.

The benefits

Maintaining and strengthening the resilience of the Minnesota’s elk population in two distinct geographic regions will increase opportunities for viewing and hunting that will expand the cultural, ecological, social and economic impacts of elk.

A healthy, self-sustaining, managed elk population will afford recreational and economic opportunities while actively addressing elk depredation situations.

Habitats and herd structure are maintained for sustainable reproductive potential, and hunting is offered both as a recreational opportunity and as a tool to manage elk populations and reduce elk-landowner conflicts.

Establishing enduring relationships with landowners to minimize elk damage is critical to successfully strengthening and expanding Minnesota's elk population.

Working collaboratively with tribal representatives is a necessary step now being taken to allow elk to once again play a role in the diet and culture of native peoples.

Restoration of native species to suitable areas is a worthy endeavor and fits within both the Fond du Lac Band and the DNR's mission and purpose.

Restoration of elk to northeast Minnesota has the potential to achieve the following objectives:

Restore an elk population, a state-listed species, in an area of the state with less potential for agricultural conflicts than existing elk range.
Allow elk to once again play a role in the diet and culture of native peoples.
Provide recreational opportunities through elk viewing and boost local economies in an area of the state primed for ecotourism.
Provide future hunting opportunities for tribal and non-tribal members.

The concerns

Wild, free-ranging elk are large animals that can damage agricultural crops, pose a danger to drivers and their vehicles, require comparatively large forage browsing areas, easily wander outside their designated ranges and provide another vector for potential wildlife diseases.

Population goals: Legislative direction in 2024 allows the DNR to explore managing elk in larger herds.

Even with this change, more work needs to be done in conjunction with the Minnesota Department of Agriculture to meet with area communities and local governments, farmers and producers to ensure that elk depredation situations are actively and adequately addressed.

Small herd size may be detrimentally impacting the health and behavior of Minnesota's herds by:

Making elk susceptible to catastrophic events.
Limiting genetic variation.
Possibly causing herd structural and behavioral changes associated with the heavy hunting pressure necessary to keep populations at or below established goals

Research: Beginning in January 2025, DNR researchers will begin an three-year research project to collar elk to gain a better understanding of how elk move across their landscape. Analyzing the factors influencing their survival will provide vital information to better manage Minnesota’s elk population.

This work will build upon the prior research conducted on these herds from 2016 to 2018 and will allow the DNR to better understand:

What habitat types both male and female elk use.
How adult male elk interact with elk from other subpopulations.
What factors influence adult and juvenile survival.
The reproductive potential for this population.

Information gathered and analyzed will help DNR develop alternate methods to monitor elk populations without having to rely on aerial surveys.

Disease testing: Stringent animal health testing guidelines have been developed with input from Minnesota Board of Animal Health, Minnesota Department of Health and the Minnesota Zoo to ensure that Minnesota wildlife and livestock remain healthy. The protocol will require that all free-ranging elk go through extensive disease testing prior to release. Other states with successful elk restoration projects have followed similar health protocols, which have resulted in no cases of disease transmission to livestock or wildlife.

Release protocol: DNR will follow a soft-release protocol in which elk will be confined for five to six weeks in the release zone to allow for vegetative green-up. A temporary holding facility could be constructed within the release zone. During winter captures in northwestern Minnesota, the health of the elk will be evaluated and they will be fitted with radio telemetry collars prior to moving into the Northeast holding facility.

Herd management and monitoring: Survival and reproductive rates and population growth will be monitored and, once elk are established, tribal- and state-licensed hunting will be used to maintain numbers at desired levels.

Habitat management: The DNR currently maintains approximately 1,900 acres of early succession habitat as brushlands in the release zone. Tribal lands in the release zone also contains more than 830 acres classified as fields and have the potential to be managed for elk and other wildlife habitat. Aspen, a preferred elk browse, are abundant and a significant component of local timber harvests.

Facts & figures

Information

See an elk, report it

See where people are spotting elk outside the animal's traditional range. If you see an elk, report it and help DNR wildlife managers better understand elk movement and distribution.

Know the difference

Individual elk are beginning to appear in a wider geographic area outside of far northwestern Minnesota. Make sure you know the difference between deer and elk in the field.

Natural History

Appearance & behavior

Elk are members of the deer family. They can weigh up to 900 pounds and stand 5 feet tall at the shoulder. Their coats are deep reddish brown in the summer, but their sides and back become light tan while their head, neck and legs become dark brown in the winter.The breeding season (called the rut) begins in late September. Bulls compete for cows and gather them into harems.

Primarily at dusk and dawn, bulls grunt and make a low whistling sound called a bugle. This bugle is used to challenge other bulls, maintain their harems and stake out territory.

After the rut, elk gather into winter herds and will stay together until June when the cows go off to calve before rejoining the herd several weeks later. Mature bulls spend the summer in bachelor groups.

Timeline

1893: Minnesota first protects elk.
1913: Minnesota Legislature appropriates $5,000 for elk reintroduction.
1914-15: Itasca State Park receives 14 elk from a private farm in Ramsey County and 56 from areas near Yellowstone National Park.
1932: The last recorded sighting of native Minnesota elk occurs in the Northwest Angle.
1935: 27 elk are released 22 miles northeast of Grygla. They successfully establish a breeding population and move southwest.
1976: DNR drafts the first elk management plan that sets elk management goals for state lands.
Early 1980s: A second herd migrates into northern Kittson and Roseau counties, presumably from Canada and/or the Grygla population.
1984: Elk are listed as a special concern species in Minnesota, which means although the species is not endangered or threatened, it is extremely uncommon in Minnesota, or has unique or highly specific habitat requirements and deserves careful monitoring of its status.
Mid- to late- 1980s: As the elk population near Grygla increases, the herds move into timbered and brushland areas mixed with agriculture. Elk-landowner conflicts increase as elk find soybeans, sunflowers and other crops to their liking. Damage by elk continues even after state attempts to discourage the elk from using the fields and subsequently removing the elk from this area.
1987: A revised elk management plan incorporates input from agricultural interests and elk proponents. The plan includes an elk hunting season (the first since 1893) to manage the herds and compensate farmers who experience crop damage.
Today: Support for an increase in Minnesota's elk population appears to be growing among Minnesota citizens. However, local agricultural producers have limited tolerance for elk damage to crops, fences and stored feed. Successful partnerships among producers, landowners, elk enthusiasts and the DNR will determine Minnesota's elk population.

Historical elk range

Habitat

Elk are primarily grazers and prefer open brushlands and grasslands for foraging and forested areas for winter and security cover. Native elk habitat in Minnesota was abundant in the prairie and forest transition zones prior to European settlement and elk are a keystone species in the prairie environment. A bull elk in northwestern Minnesota during winter

Ideal elk habitat in the current Minnesota elk range is comprised of a mixture of brushland and grassland with islands of forest within the Tallgrass Aspen Parkland biome. The mixed habitats in the elk range are also interspersed with significant agricultural lands, which has greatly impacted social acceptance of elk due to crop damage complaints.The tallgrass aspen parklands are a mosaic of prairie grasses accented by groves of aspens or scattered bur oaks.

Trees are a rarity in the prairie grassland. Most of the historic prairie is now in agricultural lands, although patches of remnant prairie remain.

These mosaics of woodland cover and large open areas provide excellent elk habitat.

Woodlands provide escape cover from human disturbance and predators, and wooded corridors provide travel lanes among seasonal habitats.

Open prairie grassland areas provide a wide seasonal variety of elk forage that includes green and dried grasses, forbs and woody plants.

Food

Elk food preferences vary with the time of year. Among natural foods, grasses and forbs comprise the bulk of the diet during the snow-free period. Woody browse is consumed during late fall and winter when herbaceous forage is less abundant or covered by deep snow.

Elk also use agricultural crops, particularly those adjacent to wild land where they can feed without venturing far from cover. Sunflowers, soybeans and oats are favored crops. Corn, wheat and barley also are eaten. Alfalfa is used during spring green-up and late in the fall. Baled alfalfa and grain are highly preferred winter foods where available, especially during winters with deep snow.

Recreation

Visit parklands and prairie grasslands

The elk range in northwestern Minnesota boasts tens of thousands of acres of public lands managed by the DNR, The Nature Conservancy, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and others. These lands stretch from the tallgrass aspen parklands west to the prairie grasslands. Bull elk in the tallgrass aspen parklands

The most popular period to view elk is September through October during the elk breeding season or rut. Elk can frequently be spotted in openings, especially at dusk and dawn. They also can be tracked by listening for the bull mating call or bugle. Grassy meadows, forest edges near openings and food plots established for elk are key areas for viewing.

Hundreds of miles of hunter walking trails in area wildlife management areas provide opportunities to view and photograph hundreds of species of birds and other wildlife.

Kittson County

There are two herds that provide viewing opportunities in Kittson County.

The Kittson-Central herd: Animals roam about 10 miles north and east of Lancaster and can occasionally be seen from paved or gravel county roads or, better yet, more isolated township roads. Skull Lake WMA is east and north of Lancaster. It provides more than 7,000 acres of elk habitat and can provide good viewing opportunities from the vehicle or on foot, especially in the fall.

The Caribou-Vita herd: Animals often can be found on the eastern portions of Caribou WMA, which is about 15 miles north and east of Lancaster. Elk are year-round residents on this 13,700-acre unit. Elk can be viewed from the vehicle or by hiking into the WMA.

Marshall County

The Grygla elk herd: Animals may be spotted along the west side of County Road 54 four miles north of Grygla where food plot fields were planted specifically for the elk. They can also be found along Minnesota Highway 89 about six miles west and north of Grygla.

Go on a hunt

Hunting elk in Minnesota is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, and Minnesota's herds have drawn nationwide attention for their trophy-sized bulls.

Hunter harvest has been the principal tool used to manage elk population growth. Hunting also helps maintain more natural, wary behavior in elk, which encourages the animals to avoid croplands and other human-use areas.

Generally, bull or either-sex seasons have been conducted in September. Antlerless hunts have been scheduled later in the fall and into winter.

Hunters can explore hundreds of miles of hunter walking trails on a variety of state WMA's. These areas provide excellent opportunities to hunt ruffed and sharp-tailed grouse.

Reports

Status

Rare Species Guide listing for Elk in Minnesota

Hunting

Elk hunting information

Population

Harvest

Elk damage

Elk damage payment information
Minnesota Department of Agriculture's damage compensation program and forms.

Management

Research

Animals