An Arizona woman died Friday after succumbing to injuries from what is believed to be an elk attack in late October, officials from the Arizona Game and Fish Department (AGFD) said.
The husband returned home to find “his wife on the ground in the backyard with injuries consistent with being trampled by an elk” and notified authorities, AGFD noted. There were no eyewitnesses to the attack in question, but the husband did see “a bucket of spilled corn nearby,” AGFD said. (RELATED: Elk Attacks Colorado Man Playing Round Of Golf, Rips Kidney To Shreds)
Mohave County woman dies after being trampled by an elk https://t.co/3wLq6LN8cs pic.twitter.com/xWV4xHoxuM
— azfamily 3TV CBS 5 (@azfamily) November 8, 2023
Feeding wildlife is highly inadvisable because “it often leads to property damage and/or safety issues for people and pets living in the area,” according to AGFD. “The majority of wildlife attacks in Arizona are the result of fed wildlife becoming habituated to humans.”
An AGFD official was dispatched to scene and found “multiple elk tracks in the yard.” AGFD said this incident might count as the first fatal elk attack in Arizona’s history.
Injuries due to close encounters with elk have happened before. Back in 2017, Missouri elk gored two women on multiple occasions because they tried to take selfies with the animals in the middle of mating season.