Out-of-place elk

Bruce Wilcox/Courtesy photo

Bruce Wilcox and his son, of rural McCook, shot this photograph of an elk running on the western slope of M Hill south of McCook Saturday morning about 10 a.m. "He was obviously lost and running scared," Wilcox said Monday morning of the sweaty animal. It's unusual to see an elk in Southwest Nebraska; while they once were found over most of the United States and southern Canada, hunting pressure has reduced their range to areas west of the Rocky Mountains. The largest herds live in Yellowstone Park, on Montana's Sun River and in Washington's Olympic Mountains.