Officials at Wind Cave National Park say they are pleased that justice is being served in an elk poaching case.
This week U.S. Attorney Brendan Johnson announced that 47 year old Timothy Burke plead guilty to unlawful taking of wildlife.
Burke is one of two men charged in the January killing of two bull elk on Wind Cave National Park.
Tom Farrell is a spokesperson for Wind Cave. He says the impact of two lost animals to the overall elk herd is slight, but the impact to the visitor experience is significant.
“I was driving to work recently and a saw a bull elk on a ridge near the highway and the sun was rising behind it and it was quite a scene and it made me realize that individual animals do matter. And so, even though we have probably 900 elk using the park this winter these two elk were very important to having visitors have a good experience at Wind Cave National Park,” says Farrell.
Federal Court proceedings are continuing against the other man charged in the poaching case.