Wildlife officials are appealing to the public for information on what appears to be an illegal elk kill between Braeburn and Carmacks, approximately 100 metres west from the Klondike Highway.

"It was shot, or died, in a buffer area within close proximity to the exclusion zone (for elk hunting),” T.J. Grantham, the conservation officer for the Faro district, told the Star this morning.

"On the face of it, there's an offence for wasting meat and abandoning the animal. That said, there is a possibility that this animal was legally hunted, wounded and not retrieved.”

After examining the dead bull elk's carcass and surrounding area, Grantham said, he believes the animal was shot from the highway sometime between Monday and Thursday of last week.

"It was a lethal shot, but not instantly lethal,” Grantham said. "It wouldn't have dropped the animal in its tracks.”

For the first time since the mid-1980s, this season Yukoners were given the chance to hunt elk in the territory.

In August, 40 permits were drawn to hunt in core and buffer areas where elk are known to congregate.

With the purchase of a $50 tag, hunters lucky enough to get a permit could hunt within those zones and those without permits could hunt in the surrounding exclusion zones.

With or without a tag, abandoning meat is subject to a maximum $50,000 fine and/or one year in jail.

"At this stage of the game right now, the illegality is that the animal was left,” Grantham said.

"Upon further investigation, other things could surface making it more illegal.”

Grantham is requesting anyone with information on this incident to call him at 867-994-2862 or toll-free at 1-800-661-0525, which is the Turn In Poachers hot line.