Information on the Spider Bull Elk

Spider Bull Elk is an informal name given to a world-record bull elk that was shot and killed in 2009. The elk was confirmed as the largest to be felled since records began in 1830. In hunting and conservation circles, especially in the Utah area, the Spider Bull Elk achieved an almost mythical status, due its size.

  1. Death

    • Rumors surrounding the death of the elk began circulating in the fall of 2009. The Boone and Crocket Club, a conservation group based in Missoula, Montana, confirmed that Denny Austan from Ammon, Idaho, had shot and killed the animal. Austan claimed to have been hunting on land in the Fishlake National Forest in Utah for 13 days before getting a sight of Spider Bull.

    Size

    • A special panel of judges convened at the Boone and Crocket club to measure the antlers of the animal, using a points system. Because the antlers were asymmetrical, the elk was put into the "atypical" category. To generate the final points score, the judges measured each branch of both antlers from tip to base. The final score awarded to spider bull was just under 479 inches. This is just over 13 inches more than the previous record score, held by an elk that was found dead in a frozen lake in British Columbia, Canada.

    Name

    • Spider Bull Elk got its name due to the unusual appearance of its antlers, which resembled the legs of a spider. The right antler had 14 points and the left antler had nine. This gave the elk a somewhat lop-sided appearance.

    Hunting Method

    • The Boone and Crocket club made great efforts in the aftermath of Spider Bull's death to emphasize that it was killed while roaming in wild, public land. In the same press release, the club stated that it was confident that the elk was killed using fair-chase principals. Fair-chase tenets call for the hunter to be in the animal's natural environment when hunting, rather than in a hunting ranch.