Entire Elk Herd Drowns After Plunging Through Colorado Ice

An entire herd of elk met its untimely demise after crashing through the ice on the surface of the Echo Canyon Reserve in Colorado. Local residents discovered the carcasses and alerted authorities this past Monday.

In all, 21 elk drowned in the icy water, just 50 feet from the shore of the lake, which lies about five miles south of Pagosa Springs. It's likely that the herd drowned at some point last Sunday evening. Now, authorities are working to remove the bodies before the water refreezes over them and makes it impossible to retrieve before the spring thaw.

"It's kind of surprising none of them got out," said agency spokesman Joe Lewandowski, in an interview with Science Recorder. "That's what happens when you get several thousand pounds on the ice."

While this incident doesn't happen all of the time, though, it's not completely unheard of. A similar incident occurred in 2008 at Paonia Reservoir.

"It doesn't happen all of the time or very often, but it is a natural occurrence," said Matt Robbins, a spokesman with Colorado Parks & Wildlife, in an interview with the Denver Post. "There were just too many of them for the ice to hold."

A local resident actually captured a picture of the elk, frozen and dead, after they were retrieved from the reservoir, according to UPI. After being posted to Instagram it was published on pagosasprings.com.

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