Minnesota DNR to offer 4 elk tags for 2025 hunting season

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Jun. 10—ST. PAUL — The Minnesota Department of Natural Resources is offering four elk licenses this year — down from 10 in 2024 — and the tags will be limited to the Caribou-Vita area of northeast Kittson County, the DNR said Tuesday, June 10.
Minnesota hunters have through Thursday, July 3, to apply for one of the four elk licenses, the DNR said.
"We are reducing opportunities for elk harvest this year to make sure Minnesota's elk populations continue to thrive," Kelsie LaSharr, Minnesota DNR elk coordinator, said in a statement. "The number of permits available is based on the lower-than-expected number of elk we counted during our 2025 aerial flights and recent trends in population growth.
"The DNR will continue to work with Tribal Nations, local landowners, agricultural producers, legislators, local government officials and state agencies to manage Minnesota's elk sustainably."
The Red Lake Nation in March announced that it will offer 20 tribal elk tags in northwest Minnesota this year — double the number offered last year — for a season that will begin Sept. 15. Much of northwest Minnesota falls within an area covered by a treaty that Red Lake tribal leaders signed with the U.S. government on Oct. 2, 1863. As part of the 1863 Old Crossing Treaty, the Pembina and Red Lake bands of Ojibwe ceded some 11 million acres of land in northwest Minnesota and eastern and northeastern North Dakota to the U.S. government.
There are currently three recognized herds in northwest Minnesota: Grygla, Kittson Central and Caribou-Vita. The Grygla area zone remains closed to state-licensed elk hunters, and this year, the Kittson Central zone will also be closed to state-licensed hunters.
The Red Lake Band, meanwhile, will offer 10 "either-sex" tags good for either a bull or a cow elk and 10 "antlerless" tags, Jay Huseby, wildlife director for the Red Lake DNR,
told the Herald in March.
The band won't be taking any elk from the Grygla herd, which has lagged below management goals for more than a decade, Huseby said.
The Minnesota DNR tallied 63 antlerless elk and 12 bulls in the Kittson Central herd near Lancaster in early January during its annual winter aerial survey. By comparison, the DNR counted 50 antlerless elk and 25 bulls in the Kittson Central herd during the 2023 survey.
The DNR didn't fly the elk survey in 2024 because there wasn't enough snow to accurately spot elk from the air.
All of the elk in the Caribou-Vita survey block, where the herd ranges between northeast Kittson County and Vita, Manitoba, were on the Canadian side of the border during the January 2025 survey. The DNR counted 128 antlerless elk and six bulls on the Manitoba side of the border. That was down from 227 elk — 96 in Minnesota and 131 in Manitoba — during the 2023 survey, but the DNR only surveyed the first 4 3/4 miles of Manitoba this year, LaSharr told the Herald in a February story, an area that represented about 25% of the Manitoba survey block.
The DNR counted 18 antlerless elk and six bulls in the Grygla herd, down from 18 antlerless elk and 11 bulls in 2023.
Minnesota hunters can apply for one of two seasons:
* Two licenses are available to harvest either a bull or antlerless elk in the Caribou-Vita (Zone 30) during the A season, Saturday, Sept. 13, through Sunday, Sept. 21.
* Two licenses are available to harvest an antlerless elk in the Caribou-Vita (Zone 30) B season, Saturday, Sept. 27, through Sunday, Oct. 5.
This is a once-in-a-lifetime hunt for Minnesota residents. Successful applicants who choose not to purchase a permit will be eligible for future elk hunts and receive an application point toward their 10-year application history preference. Given the reduction in available state permits this year, no tags will be available for the 10-year application history pool or for eligible agricultural landowners who reside within elk range, the DNR said.
Hunters must select a season and can apply individually or in parties of two at any license agent,
online
at
mndnr.gov/buyalicense
or by telephone at [phone]. There is a nonrefundable application fee of $5 per hunter. Total license cost for selected applicants is $288. Successful hunters must present the animal within 24 hours of harvest for registration and collection of biological samples to screen for diseases or other health-related issues.
In 2024, 4,307 individuals or parties (up to two people) applied for one of the 10 state-issued elk licenses, DNR statistics show. If a similar number of individuals or parties apply this year, the odds of drawing a tag would be about 0.093%, or 1 in 1,077.
* On the web:
More information is available on the DNR's
elk hunting webpage
at
mndnr.gov/hunting/elk
. For more on Minnesota's elk, check out the DNR's
elk management webpage
at
mndnr.gov/elk
.