A Cody bowhunter said he hopes his ordeal with the Wyoming Game and Fish Department — after he left a bull elk partly eaten by a grizzly — will prompt change in policy regarding when hunters can abandon bear-ravaged carcasses.
Ron Niziolek said he followed hunters’ ethics and Game and Fish rules, as he understood them, when he decided to leave the carcass of a bull he’d arrowed in September 2025. Niziolek and a hunting companion had left the elk after killing it because they didn't want to field dress it in bear country at night, and when they returned the next morning and decided to leave the carcass for health reasons after they found it partly eaten.
Even so, he was charged with misdemeanor charges of wasting a game animal and taking parts from a wasted big-game animal, each carrying a fine of about $450.
Niziolek fought the charges, and the case went before a jury in Park County Circuit Court last month. He was found not guilty.
“We inconvenienced a whole lot of people and caused a whole lot of expense for those people and for myself in what should have been a learning experience for both sides,” he said.
Niziolek said the experience has soured a once-great relationship with Game and Fish.
During the trial, Powell/Sunlight game warden Jordan Winter, who ticketed Niziolek, argued that the hunter was obligated to pack out the meat, even if he was worried it had been tainted by the bear.
A message requesting further comment from Game and Fish was not answered by publication time.
Ravenous Bears
Niziolek has hunted elk for years in grizzly country in northwest Wyoming.
He said he and hunting companions have had numerous bear encounters, including being run off by hungry bears claiming their elk carcasses.
During elk hunting season, grizzlies have typically entered hyperphagia — a phase of extreme hunger and near-constant eating — as they pack on fat for winter.
“They (the bears) just don’t care,” and will boldly try to push hunters away from their kills so they can gorge themselves on elk, Niziolek said.
“Play it safe. Never attempt to scare a bear off a carcass it has claimed,” the video narrator states.
Niziolek said a bear wasn't immediately present when he and friends Mary and Adam Miles approached his 2025 bull and discovered it had apparently been partly eaten overnight by a grizzly.
“He (the bull) was out in the open, but there was a considerable amount of timber around where a bear could have been laying,” he said.
Bull Left In The Dark
The chain of events that led to the trial began Sept. 19, 2025, when Niziolek and Adam Miles set out for a hunt in one of their favorite spots.
After some initial frustration trying to find elk, they finally located some in a spot where Niziolek was able to pull off a stock and then deliver what seemed like a solid arrow hit on a large bull.
It’s standard practice for bowhunters to hang back and give big-game animals time to bleed out before approaching.
So that’s what they did.
After being shot, the bull “went about 100 yards and bedded down," and so they hung back and watched it through binoculars.
It was late in the afternoon when Niziolek shot the bull, and they stayed and watched it until dark, confident the elk was dead or would be soon.
Because they were in grizzly country, they didn’t want to risk trying to skin and quarter the carcass in the dark. They opted to back out and return at first light the next day.
‘Big Pile Of Bear Crap’
They came back as planned on Sept. 20, and Mary Miles was with them.
Following the protocol of experienced hunters, they approached the carcass slowly and carefully.
“We all had our pistols drawn,” Niziolek said.
It wasn’t until that they were practically on top of the dead bull that they noticed it had evidently been fed on by a grizzly overnight.
There were huge bite marks in several places on the carcass, and “the guts had been pulled out,” he said.
“There was a big pile of bear crap right there. And about 10 yards away, another big pile of bear crap,” Niziolek said.
He recalled that years ago, a game warden had stridently warned him against taking meat from a big-game carcass a grizzly had fed upon.
“It’s because of the risk of disease” from bear saliva, urine, and feces, Niziolek said.
Weighing their options, they decided to take a quick photo of Niziolek posing with the bull, cut off the head so he could keep the skull and antlers, and then leave.
Spending up to 90 minutes skinning and quartering an elk with likely-tainted meat didn’t seem worth the risk of a confrontation with a grizzly, Niziolek said.
‘The Bears Are Hungry’
Niziolek thought that, as he understood the rules at the time, he’d been within his rights to leave his elk tag unpunched and go look for another bull.
But that wouldn’t have seemed right, he said. So, he punched the tag and attached it to the head so he could take it to a European mount. That’s a big-trophy mount using only the animal’s antlers and cleaned skull.
He assumed that was the end of it and didn’t report the incident to Game and Fish.
Looking back, he regrets not calling it in.
“Previously, when we had been run off of elk carcasses by bears, the response from Game and Fish was, 'Well, it’s that time of year. The bears are hungry,’” and that was that, he said.
“It didn’t cross our minds to call it in. I now feel like I could have done better, but based on previous experience, I didn’t think about it at the time,” he said.
He said they alerted other hunters and some cowboys tending to cattle in the area about the carcass and warned them to avoid it because a bear had claimed it and was likely to return.
Charges in February
Niziolek said that as he understands it, Winter was tipped off about the carcass by some other hunters who had been in the same area, and Winter investigated the scene on Oct. 1, 2025.
He said around Thanksgiving, Winter interviewed him about the incident. The game warden took the elk skull and antlers and his cell phone, seeking possible evidence, he said.
“I didn’t begrudge the investigation one bit. I don’t have any problem with the investigation, and I don’t begrudge the other hunters for doing that (reporting the incident to Winter),” he said.
Not getting his cell phone back for about a week, right around Thanksgiving, was annoying, he said.
Niziolek said he was completely forthcoming with Winter with his account of the events.
He added that he wasn’t ticketed and charged until February.
“When he (Winter) gave me those tickets, I told him, ‘I’ll see you in court,’” he said.
Legal Proceedings
Niziolek said his attorney requested voice recordings of wardens’ interviews with him and each Miles, but Game and Fish waited until about a day and a half before the trial to provide them.
“My attorney was ready to declare a mistrial” over that, he said.
He added that the morning of the trial, both Miles were told that they were also being investigated in connection with the allegedly abandoned bull.
“It did nothing but piss me off and piss them off, and they were like, ‘Yeah, we’re definitely testifying,’” he said.
According to records from the trial, prosecutors argued Niziolek was obligated to take the meat the morning he and the others found the bull.
Wyoming statute states that big-game hunters are legally obligated to take all edible portions of the animals they kill. Those include the quarters, backstraps, and tenderloins.
Winter stated during the trail that even if Niziolek was worried the elk meat had been tainted, he still should have retrieved it from the field. He could have determined later whether it was edible or ruined.
The jury ultimately rejected the prosecution's arguments.
Hoping for Change
Niziolek said his elk skull and antlers were returned to him. This week, he was out elk hunting in the same area and spoke with Cowboy State Daily over the phone during a break from hunting Tuesday.
Although he doesn’t like the publicity his case has generated, he hopes some good comes out of it.
If hunters are being told one thing about what to do when a grizzly tries to eat their elk but then see his experience generating different reactions from Game and Fish, that causes confusion, he said.
“What is the average hunter supposed to think? What are they supposed to do?” he said.
“The regulations need to be made clear,” he said. “I want it (his story) out there, so maybe it will affect some change.
Mark Heinz can be reached at mark@cowboystatedaily.com.
