This is a tough one to write.
According to Fox 10, a woman has passed away after what’s believed to be the first deadly elk attack in Arizona history.
The Arizona Game and Fish Department said the attack happened on October 26th in the Pine Lake community in the Hualapai Mountains.
The husband of the victim returned home around 6 PM, only to discover his wife lying on the ground in the backyard “with injuries consistent with being trampled by an elk.”
No witnesses were present, but the husband says he saw a bucket of spilled corn nearby, making investigators believe she may have been attempting to feed the elk.
The woman was taken to Kingman Regional Medical Center and then Sunrise Hospital in Las Vegas, where she was placed in a medically induced coma.
On November 3rd, the AZGFD was alerted by Kingman police that she had passed away.
The AZGFD learned of the attack the day after, and placed signs around the neighborhood asking residents to not feed the elk.
When the officer went to the home to speak with the husband, the officer discovered several elk tracks in the yard.
The AZGFD said in a statement:
“This is believed to be the first fatal elk attack in Arizona. There have been five reported elk attacks in the state during the past five years.
Feeding is one of the main sources of conflict between humans and wildlife. Fed wildlife becomes habituated to humans.
For example, in 2015, two children suffered minor injuries after a food-seeking elk circled a picnic table from which their family was eating in the Hualapai Mountains.
In 2021, an adult female received serious head injuries from an elk that was habituated to humans in Pine.”
The woman has yet to be identified.
Our thoughts and prayers go out to the family of the woman deceased.
