Tag Archives: Bull elk

Equipment Failure

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Yellowstone National Park Sept 2005

In any sport one has to have the right equipment and keep that equipment in tip top shape. If you’re a pole vaulter and you use a flimsy made in a third world country pole, and it snaps when you’re making your best run at the Tokyo Olympics you’re not going to get a medal. If you’re a shot putter and your shot is made of Unliftanium from one of the Baltic countries and you can’t even lift if off the ground let alone heave it anywhere, you’re going to look dumb and be laughed at by those with better equipment. This is important in the game of life.

What you see above is a contestant in the annual “Rut” or how you get babes in the Elk world, held every year to decide the mating rights among these large and very belligerent ungulates. As you have no doubt seen on any of the nature shows these male Elk fight with each other to claim and acquire the most cow elk in their harems. Because they’re big and strong and have large, but huge antlers, the cow elk desire to be obtained by the largest and strongest bull. Thus making him the winner. However many battles need to be fought and the tides of victory and cow elk accumulation ebb and flow throughout the season.

One thing remains constant however and that is they must maintain their equipment in perfect order. In this case this poor fellow had a disastrous mishap that cost him his left antler. He went in to a contest with another bull who snapped it right off during the attack, thus ending the battle, his opponents ability to proceed in the contest, and his chances of getting lucky in the mating game. It is unknown if the substandard equipment was a poor choice by the contestant, a genetic failure, or why the antler failed. Maybe it was just nature’s way of saying “Nope, you’re done. No cows for you.” In any case no other bull would fight with him. It was the Bull Code where the bulls would only fight another bull that was as big and strong enough as they were so that a win would impress the cows.

The moral of this story is if you want to win keep your antlers in good shape. Don’t be losing one or it’s game over. Maybe next year will be better for this guy.

Upward Facing Bull

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Yoga in Yellowstone – Bull elk in velvet

It’s Spring again and everything has been just as crazy up in Yellowstone National Park as it has been down here what with the threat of various virus’s and other problems such as layoff’s, furloughing, high unemployment amongst the animals that are the heart of Yellowstone. It has been a troublesome Spring. Every year when it gets close to the park reopening the National Park Service instructs the Federal Fish and Wildlife department to inventory, catalog, determine specie fitness and check each animal prior to opening the park for this years visitors. The animals need to ready for the long days of being on display and performing whatever their particulars species activities require.

As you might imagine this is a very large undertaking due to the size of the wildlife population that normally resides in the park. Just inventorying the Yellow-rumped warblers takes forever and they’re only one species out of 300 that call the park home. The initial groups brought in for re-indoctrination of park guidelines and requirements are of course, those species that are large enough to be problematic regarding interaction with the tourists, who as you would expect, have paid a large sum of money to view the wildlife and be entertained. They have high expectations due to being cooped up for the last several months with nothing to do but watch Nature programs on TV. Fortunately there are activities that the largest animals can participate in, such as Buffalo Soccer which is perfectly suited to the buffalos mentality and physique, and is a huge favorite of the foreign visitors to the park. You can expect to hear Gooooooal ! all thru the Hayden valley once the games start.

Other large animals that can require management due to their propensity for violence and misbehavior are the hooved ungulates, such as the Rocky Mountain Elk, who have a huge representation in the park. Mostly they are not considered to be a problem early on as they just eat and grow antlers until Fall approaches. Then they shed their antlers and begin to get all chesty as the “Rut” gets nearer. That’s where they get to choose as many cows as they can get their hooves on. Then it’s “Katy Bar the door!” as all hell breaks loose when these big boys battle to decide who the bull duck in the pond is going to be and who gets to keep all those cows they claimed. When this is happening no one can get near them without something terrible happening, as these 1200 lbs. love buckets care for only one thing and that is mating. The last thing on their minds is being sociable with tourists regardless of what those folks saw on TV. These animals are not here to be your new best friends.

To try and keep the damage down to a manageable level the Fish and Game department is trying something new this year. Yoga. One of the senior officials in the department was informed by his wife that Yoga is good for managing stress and anxiety, something these bulls have plenty of as they wait for the velvet to fall off their antlers, so why don’t you try Yoga to see if it doesn’t do the trick for settling these boys down. There have been several articles in Cosmo, Elle and Vogue that stated this was the new best thing to do and since this dialogue took place over a pitcher of Margaritas, there you have it. Yoga in the park and attendance is mandatory. The young fellow above is in his new favorite pose, Upward Facing Bull and as you can see by the sheer bliss settling over his face it appears to be working. Lets’ see how this all holds up in September when the Rut is starting. They may have to give Cosmos a call and get a retraction.

Old No. 6

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Old No. 6 – Bull Elk – Yellowstone National Park
Memories of an old friend

I was wandering thru my wildlife portfolio when I happened across an old friend. Old No. 6 as he was known by one and all was a huge bull elk that frequented the area around the Mammoth Hotel in Yellowstone National Park. If you have ever visited Yellowstone in the Fall and seen all of the elk that wander freely about near the hotel and headquarters area you would have seen Old No. 6 majestically parading around the edges of the herd, striding through the collected cows with his incredible span of antlers held high as if he owned them, which he did by the way. At least until the Rut, the mating season, was over

He was magnificent in every way. Over 700 lbs. of pure ornery not to be interred with prime Yellowstone bull, he brooked no interference by man or beast at the best of times. At the worst of times everyone was advised to run away. Quickly and Far. Many times if he simply saw you, standing around daring to make eye contact, you were considered interference and he would try to convince you of the errors of your ways. Several eager but soon to be regretful tourists suffered a series of perforations at the ends of those needle sharp antler points and had to be treated for those wounds quickly lest they expire. As far as can be determined there were no fatalities due to confronting Old No. 6. but then they haven’t searched everywhere.

One of Old No. 6’s idiosyncrasies was to charge and attempt to fatally wound any vehicle that he deemed to be too close to his cows and calves. There were a certain number of body shops around the U.S. that owed a portion of their revenue to Old No. 6 for the holes in the body panels of the vehicles brought to them for repairs after a run in with cantankerous old No. 6. After a while he got famous enough for his bad behavior and intolerance of fools that the prestigious BBC and others came to immortalize him on film. Sadly he received no remuneration for his stardom which may have added to his curmudgeonly behavior.

Several times his behavior became so intemperate that the Park Rangers had to tranquilize him and saw off his antlers to prevent further mayhem. This event didn’t injure him in any way other than to make him even more furious but in an impotent way. It’s difficult to maintain your rep as the baddest bull out there when you have no antlers. This did little to change his attitude but it did slow down the ambulance rides and body work necessary after one of his tirades. But beyond that troublesome little fact of his anti-social demonstrations he was loved by the millions that saw him. Whenever he decided to take a break he would be immediately surrounded by the local Elkeratzzi who would take his picture. One of which was yours truly who is solely responsible for the image above. Now that he’s gone I’m glad that I took it. If he had seen it I think he would be pleased to be presented as a quiet, kindly soul, just taking a break from living life on his terms.

Golden Days

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2016-02-24GoldenDays8973

What a difference a few months make. It was just six months ago and this bull elk was on top of the world, figuratively and literally. He was in his prime, he had bested every challenger that approached him and he had his pick of the cows. This was his time. Life couldn’t get any better for him.

That was then. Since those heady days he has faced a hard long winter. The snow has been deep, foraging hard, and his strength and weight has been depleted after a stressful rut. He is still lugging around nearly 40 pounds of antlers and has been throughout the winter. He needs to eat a lot to maintain the strength to hold his head up. Mid-March is when he normally sheds his antlers and it’s not a moment too soon for him.

A fellow named Kolten Banks was lucky enough to film an elk shedding his antlers. “Tines Up” a Utah-based hunting guide service, shared the footage this week. Here’s a link to the video.

Like the guy in the video says “How freakin’ cool is that?” Since this bull has made it this far there is a good chance he’ll make it to antler shedding time, and if he stays clear of the wolf packs he’ll soon be putting his weight back on, and will be busy growing a new set of antlers for the Fall.

This is a Yellowstone bull photographed a few miles outside of Mammoth. Judging by the size of his harem, which is grazing just outside of this frame, he did pretty good this past fall. But each year they all start fresh and there are always new young bulls with something to prove so the battles will be epic, as always.

Animal Portraits – Bull Elk

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AnimalPortraits2325

Today is Back to Basics Friday where we trek back into the archives and dig through our dusty collection of old photos to find one of our crumpled up, dog-eared images from the heady days of yester-year. Back when our cameras were full of fresh unused pixels and the sight of a gorgeous 6 point bull elk at the height of the rut was supercharged with excitement. Lets bring it out and dust it off and see how it stands up to scrutiny today.

It was a cold damp morning in late September in Yellowstone. The overnight rains were just tapering off along the Madison river, the mist was subsiding and the sun was trying mightily but unsuccessfully to brighten up the day and burn off the chill. You could walk through the wet grass and never make a sound other than the soft squelching of your boots as you moved across the saturated meadow. The bull was fixated at the sight of a rival that had just entered his space and he bugled his warning in a raging bellow as we crept up on him. Normally he never would have allowed anyone this close and would either have charged or run away but this was the rut and his attention was fixed solely on the interloper. He had his cows bunched up close and wasn’t even allowing them to go down to the river to drink. They were nervous with their heads up and watching the new bull approach, this years calves hugging tight to their sides. The answering challenge from the other bull had him mesmerized. The entire situation was super-charged with emotion and you could feel the tension in the air as a tangible thing.

A moment like this, when you are out amongst Nature, doesn’t stay static. It’s fluid and dynamic, changing second by second. In an instant this bull will decide whether to charge and fight or drive his cows to a different part of his territory where he can better defend them. As a photographer this the point where you too have a decision to make.

Watching  the situation develop do you take the shot now or wait for the next scene to unfold. Is this the point where you back up and remove yourself as the activity has become too frenzied and there is a risk of being drawn in and becoming a participant rather than a spectator, or do you stay and get that one last close-up. As you can see the decision was made to stay and take that last close-up. The next instant he had charged off to confront his rival. The moment was over.

It is amazing how much memory is attached to these photos. After taking thousands upon thousands of shots as you look at them you can remember the smallest detail of each event. What things smelled like, how the air felt, what sounds were being made. Where you were, whether you were scared or incredibly excited or both, to be involved with real life on this level. It all comes back in a rush. And that’s what wildlife photography is, a rush. It happens while you’re involved in it and later as you review it by seeing your images again.

Next time on Back to Basics Friday we’ll see what else is back there in the archives and what other memories can be dredged up. After all there are as many stories as there are images and they’re all meant to be shared.

Back To Basics

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BacktoBasics4798

In my business which is Photography, every once in a while it’s good to get back to basics. Get back to your roots, your foundation if you will, so you can get a better perspective on where you’re at now. Are you any better? Has your technique improved? Are you still seeing the shots you saw when all this was new, or are you starting to lose touch a little. Getting a little stale.

Hopefully you’ve improved. Technical skill should definitely be better. You got new and improved gear that is technically superior to what you were using back in the beginning. Post processing should be way up too. The software has been improved to the point of being magic. But the big thing is, and what is the single most important skill a photographer has, is, has your eye improved. Are you seeing things in a new way after years of experience, or are you still shooting the same way you did when you first started. Retaining a lot of the enthusiasm and developing the style you began in the beginning is ok but has your vision clarified and increased your ability to capture what you’re seeing in a better way. Are your pictures working better. These are the questions I ask myself when I go back to basics.

The difference in your early work, and is it better, is when you showed someone your images then and they said “Oh, cool. Where’d you see that?” and when they see one of your images now and say “Oh man, Unbelievable. That is incredible.” I like to hear the second one best. I don’t always get it but I get it a lot more than I used to. One hopes that indicates progress.

The shot above is one of my earliest images taken in Yellowstone way back when digital cameras were still diesel-powered. I like to think it still works. I refer back to this time period a lot because it was a time of greatest excitement for me, everything was new. I couldn’t turn around without taking a zillion photos. I literally shot thousands and thousands of images then, while terrified I was going to miss something and not get it recorded. The gear was less sophisticated, as was the software, and everything revolved around your eye, what would make a compelling image, what would be a unique view that the observer of my work would see for the first time as I did. The view finder was everything.

The jury is still out on my improvement percentage. I like to think I still see things the casual observer misses. I still get goose bumps when I see an image that really works and I realize that I created it. So I have decided there is nothing more for me to do but keep shooting, keep learning, keep seeing. Maybe one day I’ll know for sure what my status is. Until then I can keep referring to what I’ve done in the past and hope for the best.

The Young Prince

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The Young Prince8908Spike Bull Elk Rocky Mountain National Park

The herd bull is King of the herd. He rules absolutely and his primary duty is to create a harem and sire as many calves as he can. He looks for the most acceptable cows so that his offspring are most suited to continue his line. Because he is the biggest and strongest his prodigy should be too. When he is successful it is readily apparent as his young are smaller versions of himself.

This is the young Prince, a result of a successful union between himself and the Queen Mother, the dominant cow in his harem. He is being groomed to assume the role of master of the herd just as soon as he grows his antlers to their full potential, has the required number of battles with his peers and finally is able to confront and over come the herd bull. This is no small task and the outcome is in no way guaranteed. There are at least three to five more years of growing and training and avoiding the mishaps, such as accidents, falling prey to predators or being killed during the yearly hunting seasons, that are the regular fate of most bull elk.

If he makes it and is able to assume his place as King of the herd then he too will pass on the lineage he was born with. Right now he is just beginning to see the path before him and he is trying mightily to bolster his confidence. The carefree life of a young calf is behind him now and he’s paying very close attention to what the older bulls are  doing. His turn is coming up and he will need all the strength and experience he can gain. Wish him well, he has a long difficult journey ahead of him.