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Those enormous antlers aren't just to impress the cows either. Bulls
will spar with one another to protect their harems, but most of their
tough-guy activity falls into the category of "ritualized aggression."
They'll parade back and forth between their respective herds, shake
their antlers threateningly, and often will choose an inanimate object
like a bush or log to charge, to show off without actually injuring one
another. There's an important evolutionary strategy at work here. While
the biggest and strongest elk does win rights to a harem, proving that
rank by actual fighting would end up injuring and killing all the big,
strong elk. It's like protecting your starting quarterback in football;
if you let him take hit after hit, eventually he'll get hurt, your
younger, less-talented second stringer comes in, and then the team's in
trouble. If the posturing tactics don't work, the bulls will
occasionally engage in real sparring with their antlers, which can
result in serious injury, but they'd prefer to get the job done without
actually coming to blows.
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The "ritualized aggression" can also turn into real live
gore-you-and-trample-you aggression when people don't keep their
distance. Cows hide their newborn calves until they're ready to keep up
with the herd, and each spring people either purposely or unwittingly
get too close to a calf and get trampled by an angry cow protecting her
baby. Last year in Yellowstone National Park, rangers had to remove the
rack of a particularly feisty bull during mating season after he
charged a dozen cars causing several thousand dollars' of damage, then
gored a man who approached him too closely to take a picture, as well
as giving chase to a couple other visitors and park staff. While elk
are not aggressors by nature and don't spend their days figuring out
how to attack humans, you have to respect their size and strength and
think twice about sticking a camera in the face of a hormone-addled,
thousand pound animal armed with five feet of pointy antlers.
A famous Apache legend portrays both the fearsome aspect of the elk as well as its role as a provider and protector.
Death of the Great Elk tells of how man was hunted and terrorized by a
group of giant animals, including an elk and an eagle. A demi-god
manages to kill the giant elk, but not before the angry beast plowed
the ground into mountain ranges in pursuit of his adversary. The hero
divides the elk up into various parts, which then give him powers of
protection and help him to triumph in his battles with the eagles.
The dynamic between man and elk has been one-sided in man's favor ever
since. Elk used to range from coast to coast across North America, but
farming, urban development and over-hunting have diminished their range
to the West Coast and the Rocky Mountains, with a few herds scattered
elsewhere.
While recreational hunting is one of the most publicly visible threats
to elk, and this writer is saddened by the sight of these beautiful
beasts strapped to the back of a truck, hunting enthusiasts are perhaps
the most organized and effective activists in the conservation and
maintenance of elk health and habitat. Organizations like the Arizona
Elk Society work on grassland rehabilitation, management of water
resources, monitoring of illegal hunting activities, activism to
preserve land from development and other projects that are obviously
beneficial to elk populations.
For excellent videos of elk behavior captured on film by Bob Landis
at Yellowstone National Park, visit these pages on the National Park
Service website:
Video 1
Video 2
Video 3
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This video demonstrates the danger of approaching elk during the
Fall rut. (This is really unbelievable. Be sure to turn on on your
speakers to hear the amazing sound of the elk!)
Video 4
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