MOODY COUNTY — It’s not often that elk are seen East River, and it’s even rarer for one of the big animals to get hit by a vehicle — but that’s exactly what happened Monday morning on Interstate 29 just south of Brookings.

The animal, described as small prairie elk bull in the 600-pound range, had its back legs broken in the crash, South Dakota Game, Fish and Parks conservation officer Jeff Grendler told the Brookings Register. It occurred near the Big Sioux River bridge just over in Moody County and involved a semi whose driver wasn’t injured, according to the Moody County Sheriff’s Office.

He said a passersby volunteered to put the elk down, and that the meat will be salvaged.

“The meat will be donated to either the food pantry or some of these other organizations that do game feeds for service organizations or game feeds for charity,” Grendler said.

He noted the meat was taken to Sioux Falls, where it will be distributed — but only after it’s tested for chronic wasting disease by the SDSU Animal Disease Research and Diagnostic Laboratory.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, CWD is a type of prion disease found in deer, elk, moose and reindeer in more than half of the states in the continental U.S. It is always fatal to the animal. In South Dakota, the state GF&P Department said it’s been discovered in four counties so far — Lawrence, Pennington, Custer and Fall River.

The CDC noted it doesn’t appear to naturally infect cattle, other livestock or pets. Nor is there strong evidence that CWD infects people; that said, experiments involving macaque monkeys show there could be a risk factor. That’s why there’s so much caution when it comes to CWD.

Grendler described the prairie elk as an animal that has a tendency to move about more because, well, it’s home is on the prairie. He noted that usually a couple of the animals, up to a half dozen at times, wind up venturing east of the Missouri River.

“A lot of them have a tendency just to roam,” he said. “They’re here one minute and gone the next. They may go back — more than likely, probably turn around and go back to where they normally live.”

Grendler added, “We don’t have a lot of roadkill elk. They don’t get hit by cars — one, probably because of the size of them, and (two) they probably don’t move as much as deer do on the prairie.”

The elk population is much higher the closer you get to the Black Hills, with the population there numbering in the thousands, according to the state GF&P Department. Prairie elk are far fewer in number.

Just don’t tell that to a certain semi driver who was on I-29 on Monday morning.

— Contact Mondell Keck at mkeck@brookingsregister.com.