This is the first thought which came to mind when I read in
a friend's Facebook post of the passing of the famous (or infamous) elk #10. #10 was killed by a local wolf pack at the ripe
old age of 15-18 years old.
It was with much anticipation I spent my first season in
Yellowstone National Park waiting for the elk rut to start. Late August I started
hearing the buzz among staff: “Monster was up at Africa Lake last night” or “#6
was seen out by the high bridge”, this news was often met with a mixture of
excitement and dread among my coworkers who had been there many more seasons
than I. I had heard stories of Mammoth
Hot Spring’s most famous elk the car smashing duo of #6 and #10, but surely I
thought these stories were greatly exaggerated. Right? I hadn’t seen any bull elk all summer, and
while yes I had watched visitors get chased and charged by female elk I had no
idea what I was in for.
Bull or male elk stick to themselves up in the high country
protecting their growing antlers and packing on the pounds all summer long. Come late August or sometimes not until mid-September,
depending on the weather, the bull elk head to their favorite breeding grounds
to round up a harem of female elk to mate with. Once a bull has his harem he has to protect
them and keep them at all costs. Bulls can and will steal other females from
their rivals. A bull elk can lose as
much as half of their body weight during the rut trying to ward off would be rivals
and keep their harems together. But bull
elk have an arsenal of ways to keep their harems together and I have witnessed
it all while trying, often in vain, to keep the elk and the tourist separated.
1)
The Antlers: I use to tell tourist that the rut
was all about the antlers. The bull with
the most impressive rack wins the females. Female elk will size up the health
of the males in the area by the size and symmetry of their antlers. Male elk will use their antlers to destroy shrubbery,
rip up grass, and in the case of elk #6 and #10 bash out car windows, break out trail lights, rip off mufflers, and chase visitors all as a way of showing
other male elk how tough they are and impress lone female elk. #6 chased me twice and I watched him destroy
car after car which stopped to take his picture. (65 cars in his last mating
season.)
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#6
2)
The Bugle: An elk bugle carries for ¼ of a mile
or more depending on the wind conditions. It is by far the easiest way to tell
where the elk are if for some reason you can’t see them. Bull elk spend A LOT of time, especially in
the evening and nighttime hours, bugling. Bugling is the elks way of saying “this is my
spot go find your own and I WILL defend my spot!” The sexually mature males
have a bugle which starts low (almost sounds like a growl) and ends high.
Younger males have mainly the high pitched end of the bugle.
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3)
The Size up: Every now and then two bulls will
size each other up by doing what’s called paralleling. They will run or trot alongside
each other antlers laid back almost horizontal to their backs sizing each other
up. They may do it two or three times and then one elk will decide the other
guy is bigger and wander away on his own.
Sometimes when the “looser” makes his way back into the ceded turf the “victor”
will give chase at speeds of 30 miles an hour until the looser has been driven
far enough away. Every so often when two
elk are sizing each other younger smaller males will sneak into their harems
and mate with their females and make a run for it when they see the big guy
coming back.
4)
The Fight: In six seasons of watching elk during
the rut I saw only one fight. They are
rare no elk wants to damage their rack of antlers. If they break you could lose
all of their females, like I said it is all about the antlers! This particular fight lasted maybe 5 minutes
at the most. These two elk had stood all day on either side of the road bugling
at each other as they guarded their harems in tight groups. I had seen these
two elk size each other up on numerous occasions and the smaller of the two had
always wandered off. Today junior was
feeling his oats and decided to take on his much larger competitor. The larger
of the bulls pushed his competitor up the hill as the smaller of the two tried
to dig in his heals. They released a few times only to lock antlers again. As they smashed into each other each elk lost
at least two antler points each which is pretty impressive when you think that
this is the hardest part of the antler.
Antlers are made from bone and can grow as much as a ¼ of an inch per
day. They smashed into and moved picnic
tables which are so heavy it takes about 6 people to move one. After the fight
was over the looser went and “sulked” alone on the other side of the road while
the victor went back to his females.
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Copyright Peter Zuzga
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Copyright Peter Zuzga
Photographs used with the permission of Peter Zuzga.
More Information:http://www.rmef.org/ElkFacts.aspx
