(DNR) – The Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources celebrates the start of the 2026 elk hunting season on Saturday, Oct. 17. This is Wisconsin’s ninth elk hunting season since the reintroduction of elk in the state.
The 16 hunters participating in the 2026 state-administered hunt were randomly selected from a pool of more than 34,000 Wisconsin resident applicants. The department received 13,970 harvest applications to hunt bull elk in the Northern Elk Management Zone hunting unit groups and 20,728 combined bull and antlerless applications for the Central Elk Management Zone for this season. An eight-bull quota was established for the Northern Zone, with four licenses being awarded to state hunters and four to tribal members. In the Central Zone, six antlerless and six bull licenses were issued to state hunters.
“New this year, elk tags are unit-specific, which allows for focused harvest pressure in units where human-elk conflicts are higher while simultaneously setting lower quota levels in other hunting units where the desired objective is to allow for population growth,” said Christina Kizewski, DNR biologist for the Central Elk Zone.
The random drawing ensures that each applicant has an equal chance of selection within the respective management zones. Applicants were required to select a unit grouping of choice to apply to during the elk hunting application process. Applicants had the ability to apply for a bull and/or antlerless tag but could only accept one license.
