Drugged elk makes easy pickings for Custer Park lion

—Talk about an unlucky elk.

And a lucky lion.

The two got together last week in Custer State Park as a helicopter crew was shooting sedation darts at cow elk to drug them so they could be handled in a research project.

One elk hit by a dart staggered into some vegetation to lie down.

It never got up, thanks to the lion, which was waiting nearby.

“It was a nice sunny day, and I guess that lion was sitting out there sunning itself when an elk staggers up and tips over,” said Gary Brundige, resource manager in Custer State Park. “Well, what’s any top-of-the-line predator going to do in a situation like that?”

It killed the elk and prepared to have dinner.

The action was over in a hurry. The helicopter crew made sure the elk was dead and moved on to the next one.

Crew members also reported that earlier in the day, they had seen what likely was the same lion in the area. It had briefly chased a group of elk that was being herded by the low-flying helicopter in preparation for darting.

“From talking to the pilot, it sounded like the lion gave a half-hearted effort to the chase,” Brundige said.

It was much easier for the big cat later, when the lone elk staggered up to lie down.

There are a lot of lions in Custer State Park and the Game & Fish tried to hunt a few of them but we have so many tree huggers against the hunting of the lions. Their new tactic is to apply and draw tags and then basically burn them. The elk herd is taking a huge hit, not to mention the bighorn sheep and mtn goat populations. 2 out of the 5 lion tags for the park went to these antis and the other 3 went to a family in Pierre who never got out to the park to even hunt. Might as well not have even had a season, or do the same thing that they do for the rest of the hills and sell an unlimited amount of tags and close the season when the quota is full.