Elk found devoured on football field near Yellowstone in rare attack, school says

Public school officials in Montana started the day with a gruesome discovery on the football field one morning, reports say.

Gardiner Public Schools superintendent and principal Jim Baldwin posted a photo on Facebook showing a picked-over elk carcass as a park ranger loaded it onto a truck on Friday, April 12, multiple outlets reported.

The school is in the town of Gardiner at Yellowstone National Park’s north entrance — and part of the school building is actually inside the park, USA Today reported.

A well-known wolf pack that lives in the park was assumed responsible for the kill, The Spokesman-Review reported. It’s the largest pack in Yellowstone with six adults and 15 yearlings, the outlet reported.

The pack killed the elk overnight, dragged it onto the school’s football field to feed and retreated back into the park before dawn, Outdoor Life reported.

And while it’s common to see live elk and other prey animals roaming through town and school grounds — it’s far less common to see predators venturing outside the park to hunt, a Yellowstone spokesperson told the Billings Gazette.

“It is common for wildlife to move through and adjacent to the Gardiner community given its location at the doorstep of a national park,” Linda Veress told the outlet. “It’s common for elk, bison and pronghorn to be at the school grounds, less so bears and wolves. It is very rare that we document wolves within the town’s developed footprint over the last 28 years. Very seldom, if ever, does park staff need to deal with bears and bison on school grounds.”

The school serves 60 students from kindergarten through high school, with a staff of about 20, The Spokesman-Review reported.

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