Man charged with poaching trophy whitetail

A South Dakota man has been charged with poaching a trophy whitetail deer last fall. Dugan Traversie shot the buck at the Timber Lake Elk Ranch. The case reverberated through both the hunting and tribal communities because the land where the buck was killed is private; however, it's next to tribal land where a hunting license is required from the tribe. Traversie is "an enrolled member," according to the Capital Journal, but hunting season wasn't open and Traversie "shot the buck from outside the fence of the private ranch."

Last week, Traversie was sentenced to "a year of probation, a year without hunting" and was ordered to pay $9,000 in restitution to the Timber Lake Elk Ranch. While Traversie showed remorse for his crime during the sentencing, the chain of events that led to it shows a different story.

According to the Capital Journal, on Oct. 28, Traversie shot the buck (while on tribal property) through the fence. He retrieved the head of the buck and "threw it back over the fence" before he "tied it up underneath a bridge nearby." Further, once the head was smuggled out of the ranch, Traversie posted a photo of himself with the head of the "whitetail buck with a freakishly huge set of antlers" on social media. That post received a ton of comments and easily linked him to the case.

https://www.gohunt.com/read/news/man-charged-with-poaching-trophy-whitetail#gs.884z2w