State officials hope trail cameras set up throughout Michigan's elk habitat can help more accurately track the large animals' population and allow better management of the northern Michigan herd than the current method of aerial surveying.

The Michigan Department of Natural Resources is piloting the use of trail cameras this fall. The DNR’s Wildlife Division recently set up about 200 cameras in and around the core elk range, which encompasses about 1,100 square miles, the DNR said in a release. Most of the cameras are on state-managed land, although DNR researchers worked with landowners to set up cameras on private land as well.

Camera data will be compared against the DNR’s current method of estimating the elk population — aerial surveys — to determine which method is more precise an

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