Two Alaska moose hunters recently entered a plea deal with Anchorage's federal court, banning them from hunting worldwide for the next four years. Their crime? Illegally killing a moose about 936 miles inside Alaska's Denali National Park, then attempting to transport the animal outside its boundaries.
According to court documents, the men, Andrew McDonald and Christopher Brumwell, were moose hunting in the Denali National Preserve in the Dry Creek area on September 20, 2021 when they knowingly chose to kill a bull moose that was clearly inside the park's perimeter. The two men shot the moose around 5:00 p.m., about 450 yards from a park boundary marker inside the park itself.
According to documents, the men knew they were inside the park boundaries at the time of the kill. After McDonald killed the moose, the men skinned the skull in preparation for a "European-style mount." They took two game bags of meat, about 69 and 57 pounds, and cached them outside the park, "75 miles from a Park boundary marker."
Brumwell and McDonald used a Garmin inReach to communicate and mark the kill site's location and where they ultimately stashed some of the meat. A third party who had seen the men kill the moose offered to let them use a satellite phone to report the kill; McDonald turned the offer down. The men waited to tag the moose until they had moved it outside the park boundaries.
How the Moose Poachers Were Caught
Eventually, park rangers discovered the kill site and questioned McDonald and Brumwell. Both men denied the kill. However, their GPS messages and tagged paths told a different story. At one point, Brumwell told McDonald that he and his wife would " move the goods" with their four-wheeler and side-by-side carrying packboards. But the plan was scrapped when they realized people were watching the kill site.
After initially lying to National Park Service Rangers, McDonald admitted that he and Brumwell shot the moose and moved some of the meat outside park boundaries before returning to their camp. NPS Rangers told them they had to pack out the moose and return it to other rangers. Neither man complied. The rangers packed up the meat themselves from the kill site, where they could only salvage 70 pounds—a bear had gotten to it.
All sides in the case have signed a plea agreement. Both men plead guilty to a single count each of illegally transporting wildlife that was hunted in violation of federal law. They each agree to a worldwide hunting ban for four years and must pay a $10,000 fine to the Denali National Park Foundation.
They also must forfeit the gun used to kill the moose and their Garmin in Reach, or else pay an additional $2,500 fine. All meat and the skull are also to be surrendered. The plea deal also stops the men from petitioning to end their probation early. The agreement is awaiting the signature of a magistrate judge.
All of which is a reminder: poaching never pays.
