Wisconsin's 2026 elk hunting season opens Saturday, Oct. 17, the state Department of Natural Resources announced. It is the ninth season since elk were reintroduced in the state.
Sixteen hunters are taking part in the state-administered hunt. They were drawn at random from more than 34,000 Wisconsin resident applicants.
For the Northern Elk Management Zone, which covers part of northwest Wisconsin, the quota is eight bulls. Four licenses went to state hunters and four to tribal members. The Central Zone received six bull and six antlerless licenses for state hunters.
Tags are unit-specific for the first time this year. The DNR says that lets managers focus harvest where human-elk conflicts are higher and set lower quotas where the goal is population growth.
Most of the cost of an elk application goes back to the program, the DNR said, paying for collars, habitat work and research. The next application period is expected to run from March 1 through May 31, 2027.
