Yesterday I was heading south on 287 back to Amarillo from CO. A few miles north of where the river crosses under the highway there was a dead bull elk lying in the center grass portion between the divided highway. Whatever hit it was a good sized vehicle because the guts were busted open and laying next to the carcass. Looked like 3 legs were broken too. I'm guessing it was probably a semi truck. Someone had cut off the antlers but the carcass was a good sized bull and weighed at least 600 lbs. I grew up in Co and have taken 25 elk so I base the estimate on elk I have handled in the field. This was a mature bull.

This was the first evidence I have seen of elk in that area. Lots of mulies, whitetails and pronghorn around there but I have never seen any elk. There were some reports of elk up around Dalhart which is not that far from NM so it makes sense they would wander around over there. But this carcass was 70+ miles from Dalhart. But seeing is believing, so there was at least one elk north of Amarillo. Don't know if there are any others but there damn sure was one within the last few days.

Maybe could have also been an escapee from HF?

I saw it too. There has been elk in that area all way to Cimarron National Grasslands in KS for almost 40 years. Ive seen lots of elk between Amarillo and Boise City. Ive killed several cows North of Dumas and got on a really good bull a few years back. I hunt elk up there Oct when Im bow hunting pronghorn

Buddy of mine worked for Del-Monte and they had some fields west of Dalhart right on the Texas/NM border, with the property crossing the state line. They would have elk get into their pivot fields and destroy crops, one of his jobs was to wait until they would cross into Texas and then eradicate as many as the could. He shot several cows and one decent bull.


Only wild elk I have seen in Texas were a bull and 3 cows cross hwy 337 just east of Leakey (likely high fence escapees) and a few here and there north of Ft. Stockton on a ranch we hunted. There is a big population on the Longfellow outside of Sanderson.

Seems like 15 or so years ago, a farmer killed a bull near Tulia in a corn field. So I am not surprised.

There you go.

I remember too.

https://www.myplainview.com/news/article/Farmer-sees-large-elk-in-field-shoots-it-9001394.php