CHARLESTON, W.Va. — West Virginia’s elk herd stands at around 100 to 110 animals in the coalfields of southern West Virginia. The approximate figure was offered up to an interim committee of the Legislature during a meeting in Charleston Tuesday by the Division of Natural Resources Elk Project Leader Randy Kelly.

Kelly gave an update on the health of the herd and the progress made since reintroduction began in West Virginia in 2015. Kelly noted the state of Virginia started its elk reintroduction just a couple of years before West Virginia. But the Virginia program has benefitted greatly from Kentucky’s elk program. Due to the proximity and terrain, a large number of Kentucky elk have roamed into the Old Dominion much more frequently than they’ve crossed the Tug Fork River.

“We were getting a few elk passively moving in from Kentucky, but nothing like what is moving into Virginia. Mostly it’s our southern coalfield counties which border Kentucky, although there was one that was noticed to be in as far as Boone County,” Kelly said in his address to lawmakers.

DNR Director Brett McMillion told lawmakers there are explorations being made to import more elk from other locations to the Mountain States. But movement of any cervid species has become a complicated process due to the fear of Chronic Wasting Disease as well as other diseases.

Kelly told lawmakers West Virginia’s herd was still trying to recover from the impact of a loss of a large number of animals rounded up in Arizona and sent to West Virginia.

“We were under a 120 day holding rule and had to keep them penned up. No matter how much food we gave them or how gently we handled them, they became extremely stressed,” he explained.

Crews captured 60 elk in Arizona to transfer to West Virginia. Eight died in captivity while being held in Arizona for the first 30 days. They were then trucked to West Virginia where they had to be held in a holding facility on the Tomblin Wildlife Management area for the duration of the 120 day quarantine. Efforts to get a waiver from the USDA for the quarantine were unsuccessful and seven more of the Arizona elk died before they were released onto the landscape in West Virginia.

Kelly said it didn’t end there.

“We ended up releasing 46 animals, but because of the added stress another 33 percent were lost to a parasite called brain worm. When your body is stressed you’re more susceptible to parasites or disease. After they recovered from that, it’s calmed down and we are starting to recover from that loss,” he said.

A typical loss to brain worm is about 4 to 10 percent in a common year. Kelly said one of the issues now is the age structure of the state’s elk herd skews rather young.

“They’re not consistent breeders until they are three and they only have one calf a year. Where we had 15, 20, or 30 cows to breed in the past, now we’re up to about 40 so hopefully it will start growing a little faster,” he explained.

Some lawmakers inquired about what level the herd would need to reach before a limited hunt could be allowed. Delegate Amy Summers noted Virginia had just completed their first elk hunt with tags to harvest a small number of bulls and the population in the range of 200 to 250 animals.

Although Kelly was reluctant to put any number on the herd which would trigger conversations for a controlled hunt he agreed 200 to 250 was at least where West Virginia’s herd needs to be before a first hunting opportunity.

“We’re still at a really young age structure, even our bulls are young. We don’t want to do it too early because you can affect reproduction, so we want to be cautious, but I’d say that 200 to 250 range,” said Kelly.

Kelly also told lawmakers since the sad situation with the Arizona elk, they’ve learned a lot more about handling the critters and using better techniques and equipment to minimize stress on the animals.

“I think we learned a lot on our first transfer. More recently working with the USDA things have been a little more cordial, so hopefully we wouldn’t be forced in that again, but if we that’s the case we’ve done things to improve our methodology,” he added.