oxygenOne spring day last April, wildlife law enforcement officers in Wyoming made a startling discovery. While patrolling national forest lands in the northwest part of the state, they found 40 antlers piled high in the woods and covered with tree branches.
They realized the antlers were part of an illegal poaching collection. Collecting antlers has long been a favorite pastime in Wyoming, where the state’s bull elk spend much of the summer growing their massive antlers before shedding them the following spring. However, there are strict restrictions on when people can collect the antlers, which can often fetch high prices from public lands and be used as decorations, dog chews or crafts.
The woodland’s antler-collecting season begins on May 1 each year, and the nearby Elk Refuge is closed year-round, meaning the pile of antlers was apparently harvested and hidden in secret.
After weeks of investigation, federal and state law enforcement officials discovered that an Idaho man named Jonathan Lee Cox illegally harvested more than 1,000 pounds of antlers worth from woodlands and refuges. Up to $18,000. He pleaded guilty in March and was fined $6,000 in federal court and banned from public lands in Wyoming and banned from hunting anywhere in the world for three years.
His case highlights a growing problem across western Wyoming in which people sacrifice the welfare of the state’s elk, mule deer, bighorn sheep and moose for an annual payday. This year’s picking season is about to begin again, which includes a new rule requiring all non-Wyoming residents to wait another week until May 8 before collection can begin. A combination of rule changes and growing popularity has made law enforcement officials particularly wary of antler poaching.
Brad Hovinga, wildlife supervisor for the Wyoming Game and Fish Department in the Jackson, Wyo., area, said it boils down to a wildlife harassment issue. People who are in these enclosed areas and collecting antlers when they shouldn’t are disturbing wildlife at a time when it’s important for wildlife not to be disturbed.
Biologists say animals like elk, bighorn sheep or black-tailed deer burn up the precious calories they need to survive in late winter in the face of too much human activity. Too much stress and too few calories can reduce birth rates and even cause some animals to become weak and die.
But as wildlife officials realize, the lure of making money outweighs concerns about wildlife or fear of capture.
Depending on the year, shed antlers can sell for about $15 per pound, and a large elk antler can weigh up to 20 pounds. This price is for antlers used in dog chew toys, knife handles, medicine, and even buttons. A large set of freshly dropped antlers used as a decorative wall hanging could bring someone thousands or even tens of thousands of dollars, Hovinga said.
About 20 years ago, as antler values rose and interest in collecting them surged, Wyoming wildlife officials noticed a troubling trend: More people were riding four-wheelers, horses and on foot to hunt elk during the winter. Range wandering causes animals to be at their weakest and most vulnerable.
In some cases, people will even identify individual animals with particularly valuable antlers and push them up trees or fences, or place tangled ropes over illegal baits in the hope that they will fall off naturally. The antlers were previously hooked off the animal’s head.
About 15 years ago, Wyoming began closing antler harvesting areas from January 1 to May 1 to give wildlife a breather as they lose their antlers and before the snow melts and the grass turns green. People can still hike and recreate on the lands, but they are prohibited from picking up any incidental antlers they find.
Hovinga said the new rules help. And now, on the morning of April 30, the opening of the official antler-collecting season, hundreds of cars are lining up to enter these public lands, piling up at every roadside stop, trailhead and wide swath on the highway.
But antler poaching continues, even though people like Cox are prosecuted every year and given hefty fines and the loss of their privileges. In 2022, a man named Joshua Anders Rae was sentenced to 90 days of home detention, 90 days of probation, and banned from federal lands for five years for illegally harvesting shed antlers. Five years ago, he was sentenced for illegal collecting in the same area.
Hovinga said spring has now become one of the busiest times of the year for game wardens, even rivaling the fall hunting season.
“We’re fielding a lot of calls, tips, and trying to catch people who are trying to cheat the system and get involved early,” he said.
The National Elk Refuge is a federal land that provides protection to thousands of wintering elk and prohibits almost all human interference, including the collection of antlers, except for one annual fund-raising collection and antler sale. That means when adjacent Forest Service lands open up, the potential for poaching increases, said Frank Durbian, refuge program director. The shelter has five to seven extra officers every year patrolling the border to prevent trespassing.
Hovinga said the best way to address the growing problem is education and continued prosecution. Even across vast forest lands spanning hundreds of thousands of acres, game and fish wardens believe thermal imaging can be used very effectively with new tools like thermal imaging, which allows wardens to see at night, the most common time of day. People who visit these areas poach for antlers.
It’s not that we don’t want people to have antlers, Hovinga said. This is about protecting wildlife.
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