{"id":522716,"date":"2026-03-14T07:08:12","date_gmt":"2026-03-14T07:08:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/522716\/"},"modified":"2026-03-14T07:08:12","modified_gmt":"2026-03-14T07:08:12","slug":"montana-elk-die-after-eating-japanese-yew-a-pretty-plant-that-kills-wildlife","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/522716\/","title":{"rendered":"Montana Elk Die After Eating Japanese Yew, A Pretty Plant That Kills Wildlife"},"content":{"rendered":"

At\u00a0least five elk died in Montana after eating needles from Japanese yew, a popular ornamental landscaping plant that is non-native and lethally toxic to animals.<\/p>\n

Elk have been dying after eating yew near Missoula, Montana,\u00a0Field & Stream<\/a>\u00a0reported.<\/p>\n

\u201cA mouthful of yew needles are enough to kill an\u00a0adult elk,\u201d Idaho Fish and Game public information supervisor Roger Phillips told Cowboy State Daily.<\/p>\n

It kills quickly.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnimals pretty much just tip over dead when they eat them,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Japanese yew is equally deadly\u00a0to\u00a0other wildlife species, such as pronghorn, livestock and pets, Phillips said.<\/p>\n

In January 2017, Japanese yew caused one of the worst wildlife disasters in Idaho\u2019s history. A herd of 50 hungry pronghorn crossed the frozen Snake River from Oregon into Payette, Idaho.<\/p>\n

They found and started gobbling Japanese yew, dropping\u00a0dead on the spot.<\/p>\n

There have been cases of people sickened or dying after accidentally ingesting it, according to\u00a0ScienceDirect<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Fence It In<\/p>\n

Japanese yew might be a tempting option for landscaping in the cold, arid West, horticulturist Shane Smith, the founder of the Cheyenne Botanic Gardens, told Cowboy State Daily.<\/p>\n

People might try other shrubs or small trees, such as Arborvitae, only to discover they can\u2019t make it in Wyoming\u2019s climate, he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s relatively drought tolerant. It doesn\u2019t need a lot of water,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

And it can thrive in shady areas.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe only place it wouldn\u2019t be happy would be something like xeriscape in a hot, sunny spot,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

It can\u00a0be difficult to find in garden centers\u00a0or\u00a0big box stores in Wyoming, but it’s\u00a0usually available in Colorado, or can be ordered online, Smith said.<\/p>\n

However, because of the danger to wildlife and pets, people should be mindful about where they plant it, he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s got that problem. And almost anywhere you live in Wyoming, you\u2019re at least going to have deer walking through,\u201d Smith said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you\u2019re worried about wildlife, it\u2019s probably not a great choice,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Those who plant Japanese yew should keep it fenced in, out of reach of animals, he said.<\/p>\n

Smith retired from the Botanic Gardens\u00a0and lives in western Colorado. He has some Japanese yew on the north side of his house, enclosed by a tall, sturdy wooden fence.<\/p>\n

Has Killed Wyoming Pronghorn<\/p>\n

Retired Wyoming Game and Fish wildlife biologist Rich Guenzel told Cowboy State Daily that Japanese yew occasionally kills wildlife here.<\/p>\n

He recalled a rash of pronghorn deaths in the Cheyenne area during one particularly dry year, when the animals tried to find alternative food sources.<\/p>\n

Guenzel, who retired as the Game and Fish Laramie District wildlife biologist, said he didn\u2019t remember any losses on the scale of the Payette, Idaho pronghorn die-off.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t recall us having any loss of that magnitude, but it\u2019s certainly something that has happened to pronghorn in Wyoming,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Japanese yew wildlife deaths are a steady problem in Idaho, Phillips said. His agency puts out reminders to the public and landscapers, in hopes of mitigating the hazard. \u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI think it\u2019s been an ongoing problem for decades. It crops up every few years and we try to let people know it\u2019s happening,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou\u2019re never going to keep up with something like this. When people go to pick up some Japanese yew for their landscaping, the toxicity to wildlife really isn\u2019t going to be on their radar,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

Mark Heinz can be reached at mark@cowboystatedaily.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"At\u00a0least five elk died in Montana after eating needles from Japanese yew, a popular ornamental landscaping plant that…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":522717,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[51],"tags":[79,201],"class_list":["post-522716","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wildlife","tag-science","tag-wildlife"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/522716","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=522716"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/522716\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/522717"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=522716"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=522716"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=522716"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}