Sunday, April 21, 2013

Do Elk Fight In Heaven?


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.
                                                             #10 Copyright Peter Zuzga

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.)
 
#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.
 
                                        Copyright Peter Zuzga

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.    
Copyright Peter Zuzga

Copyright Peter Zuzga
 
So, while #10 and #6 have gone to the great prairie in the sky their offspring roam the hills and valleys around Mammoth Hot Springs in Yellowstone National Park. Visitors beware.

 

Photographs used with the permission of Peter Zuzga.  
More Information:
http://www.rmef.org/ElkFacts.aspx

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