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September 23, 2007
Elk Duel
(To see the full, uncropped versions of these photos, please click on the "Elk Duel" blog entry link under "Recent Entries" on the right hand side of the screen.)
On Wednesday morning at about 11 am, a bull elk duel was waged near my house. The following is a photo-documentary of what occurred. I took all the pictures through the double-paned windows of my house, so please pardon the lacking clarity.
In the wee hours of Wednesday morning, I could hear a bull elk bugling close by (See my previous 2 blog entries about elk for details on bull elk bugling and other fascinating rut behaviors.). Once it was light, I saw that a bull (a 6-pointer on 1 side and a 7-pointer on the other side, with no ear tags) was situated across the street with his harem of about 20 cows and their associated calves. The bull continued bugling all morning, answering the bugles of another nearby bull. Typically, bugling wanes shortly after dawn until about mid-afternoon, while bulls rest and recover from a night of fighting and mating.
Shortly before 11 am, the bugling became more incessant, and I saw another bull elk (a complete 7-pointer with a number 10 ear tag) arrive to my yard. This bull brought 2 cows with him, but I later learned he had a full harem on the other side of the neighborhood. I presumed that this new bull was arriving to challenge the other one.
The untagged bull is on the left and the number 10 bull is on the right. In the background, a few members of the untagged bull’s harem are visible.
The untagged bull is showing his dominance by beating his antlers against a tree. You can see why trees in the neighborhood are fenced!
After some bugling, posturing, false charging, scent marking, ground scraping, and tree bashing, the two bulls engaged in combat, which lasted for about 1 minute.
It wasn’t clear to me who had won the battle by the battle alone. Afterwards, the untagged bull returned to his harem, and the number 10 bull walked in the opposite direction. Thus, it appeared the bulls’ relative status hadn’t changed.
The number 10 bull (His yellow ear tag is clearly visible in this photo. Bull elk with ear tags are "marked" by the National Park Service if they've previously gotten into "trouble" for charging tourists, damaging property, and etceteras.) traveled to the other side of my house, presumably to check on the 2 cows he had brought with him and possibly to take a breather from the action.
It wasn’t long before the 2 bull elk were readying for battle again. In this photo, you can see the number 10 bull scraping the ground with his antlers. He is seemingly agitated!
And, then, they went at it again!
When the second battle concluded, the untagged bull again returned to his harem as the winner. The number 10 bull walked in the other direction, his seeming agitation at an all-time high. He was so agitated that he bluff charged my vehicle, as you can see here. Luckily for me, he stopped charging at the last moment, sparing my vehicle.
With a lot of frustrated- and hoarse-sounding bugles, the number 10 bull disappeared from view with his 2 cows, likely headed back to his own harem. His frustration and destitution was palpable.
The untagged bull duly returned to his harem.
This photo was taken about 3 hours later. It shows the number 10 bull with his harem on the other side of the neighborhood. It appears that he’s taking a nap, exhausted from the morning’s fight.
Interesting Notes:
The number 10 bull has been around the Mammoth Hot Springs area for a while now. In past years, he has been one of the most powerful bulls of Mammoth. At the start of this battle, it appears he already had a large harem, but that he instigated a fight with the untagged male for more cows.
Fascinatingly, the number 10 bull lost this battle to another clearly powerful but slightly younger/smaller bull (as evidenced by its slightly smaller antler structure).
I should note that these battles will occur on a regular basis throughout the rut season. It’s possible that these 2 bulls have fought before, and that they will fight again. Additionally, I have seen 2 other very large bulls in the Mammoth area, so there are at least 4 bulls in contention for the local cows.
Posted by Meghan at September 23, 2007 3:09 PM
Comments
omg. this is insane. were you held captive inside? did you have the day off or could you not get to work?
Posted by: Audrey at September 23, 2007 6:32 PM
That is so cool! Wow!
Posted by: backofpack at September 23, 2007 9:28 PM
Great shots of the elk if prime rutting form! Just another day in Yellowstone? Thank you for sharing your photos. So did #10 see his reflection in your SUV's window? How would you explain that to your insurance company?
I'm surprised you didn't go outside with a red tablecloth and try to be a matador! Now those would be some great action photo's!
Posted by: Eric at September 23, 2007 9:36 PM
Meghan said: so there are at least 4 bulls in contention for the local cows.
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this is a string of words that have never come out of my east coast city slicker mouth--LOLOL
Geesh that is crazy... I had a few ducks walk by once, i fed them some bread :-)
Great post thanks for sharing Friggin Elks are huge...had to be pretty intense to see them smashing their heads in "Live"
ummm maybe no biggie for u guys....
OK Honey have to get some Milk, Ok Sweetie please watch out for the ELK as u back out the driveway--haha
Posted by: Bob Gentile at September 24, 2007 8:53 AM
This is utterly insane Meghan! Stuff like this just doesn't usually happen where I live...you know?! :) Great pics - thanks for the play by play!
Posted by: Beth at September 24, 2007 2:00 PM
Fun stuff, Rut season! Very cool to get these photos from your own home. A bit scary though too. I wouldn't want to run though them!
Jenny
Posted by: Jenny at September 24, 2007 5:34 PM
Fun stuff, Rut season! Very cool to get these photos from your own home. A bit scary though too. I wouldn't want to run though them!
Jenny
Posted by: Jenny at September 24, 2007 5:34 PM
Great photos! How fun that you got the whole ordeal on camera! What a soap opera, right out your window! [shakes head] ... Only in Yellowstone... ha ha!
What a great post! Thanks for posting the pictures--this kind of front yard activity is so surreal, it's hard for us non-park dwellers to envision. Most people just have squirrels! :)
Now... maybe you could set up a fence around your vehicle? Yikes! SUV versus large antlers... I hope that is not the next duel pictured on your blog...
Posted by: anne at September 25, 2007 4:52 AM
I am so glad you mentioned Bull #10 had his own harem. Otherwise I was about to feel really sorry for him. But now I see he was just being greedy and not appreciating the harem he already had: bad, bad bull. So now you have Days of Our Elk Lives outside your window, too. Your neighborhood looks so cozy and nice... with such a backdrop... thanks so much for capturing this! I like how the cows look kind of bored with the whole thing.
Posted by: Kendra Borgelknono at September 25, 2007 1:23 PM
this is cool meghan. i love hearing about your knowledge of wildlife as i learn something most every time. thanks for sharing.
Posted by: tom riley at September 25, 2007 2:39 PM
I think you need elk insurance for your car.
So all I need to do is bugle and get in fights and I'll have a whole harem of babes following me around? Cool! I think I'm starting to feel a little agitated right now. I'll head out and start something straight away. (Although I don't think I'll get very far referring to my harem as "cows"!)
Posted by: JeffO at September 25, 2007 4:57 PM
That's a 10-4 on Le Grizz, Meghan. How about you?
Posted by: Kendra Borgantiharem at September 27, 2007 9:42 AM