On December 16, 2020, wildlife officials in Grand Teton National Park received word of something they had been dreading, and for years respected disease experts said was inevitable: confirmation that an elk taken by a hunter in the park had tested positive for Chronic Wasting Disease.
State and federal wildlife managers had known it wasn’t a matter of if, but when, wapiti congregating in Jackson Hole would come down with CWD. The test result 26 months ago further corroborated fears that the always fatal disease afflicting members of the cervid (or deer family) had reached the geographic middle of the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem.
This article was written by Todd Wilkinson. Read the rest of the article HERE.