(WXYZ) — The Michigan Department of Natural Resources is conducting a survey to estimate the state's elk population and is trying a new technique.
According to the DNR, trail cameras will be used, and the wildlife division recently set up about 200 cameras in and around the core elk range. That range is about 1,100 square miles across the northern Lower Peninsula.
Most of the trail cameras are on state-managed land, according to the department, but researchers also worked with landowners to set up cameras on private land.
It's all part of a larger project aimed at determining the most accurate and cost-effective way to manage the elk herd, and camera data will be compared against the DNR's current method of estimating the population through aerial surveys.
The DNR said having an accurate elk population helps the state determine how many elk hunting licenses should be issued every year.
“We will compare the results from these different survey methods and balance the precision of the estimates they provide with the resources they require,” said DNR wildlife biologist Angela Kujawa said in a statement.
For more than two decades, the DNR did aerial surveys every other year. The last survey in 20224 estimated the population at 1,146, with a "confidence interval range of plus/minus 262, meaning the population is between 884 and 1,408 animals."
The next aerial survey will take place in 2026.
