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For First Time in More Than a Hundred Years, Elk May Have Been Sighted In The Mountains Of SC

Upstate SC Chapter of the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation
Credit Upstate SC Chapter of the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation.

There’s nothing more exciting if you are an outdoors enthusiast than observing wild animals in their natural habitats, except for maybe seeing or even hearing an animal that you don’t expect to be where you are.

Recently there have been reports of Elk being spotted and heard in the small mountain region of South Carolina. To date the sightings have not been confirmed, however Charles Ruth, a biologist with the SC Department of Natural Resources says it is “certainly plausible” that Elk might turn-up in the mountain region of the state due to the fact that an Elk herd is thriving in the Cataloochee Valley in the nearby mountains of North Carolina. The National Park Service re-located an elk herd there in 2001.

The reported sightings in and around Caesar’s Head and Jones Gap State Parks are exciting to the members of the Upstate South Carolina Chapter of the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation, an organization of mostly hunters which raises money to conserve Elk herds and their habitats out west.

Russ McKinney has 30 years of experience in radio news and public affairs. He is a former broadcast news reporter in Spartanburg, Columbia and Atlanta. He served as Press Secretary to former S.C. Governor Dick Riley for two terms, and for 20 years was the chief public affairs officer for the University of South Carolina.