Bull Elk with Bird

by Judi Dressler

Title

Bull Elk with Bird

Artist

Judi Dressler

Medium

Photograph - Photography

Description

It was snowing, and I was photographing this majestic male elk -- a 6 x 6 point Bull Elk up in Rocky Mountain National Park -- when a little Yellow-rumped Warbler flew over and briefly landed on his antlers. The elk, who was resting, stirred and seemed to notice, and the bird flew off. Luckily I had my camera at the ready and clicked away, capturing this wonderful moment!

This was during a fluke snow storm in early September. Temperatures had been around 100 degrees F in Denver, when overnight they dropped by over 60 degrees and the snow fell. A couple days later we were back in the 80s!

Elk are also called wapiti, a Native American word that means “light-colored deer.” Elk are related to deer but are much larger than most of their relatives. A bull elk's antlers may reach 4 feet above its head, so that the animal towers 9 feet tall, and a mature bull elk weighs around 700 pounds.

Bull elk lose their antlers each March, but they begin to grow them back in May in preparation for the late-summer breeding season.

During the late summer breeding season the bugling of bull elk echoes through the mountains. These powerful animals strip the velvet off their new antlers using them in violent clashes that determine who gets to mate with whom. Males with the bigger antlers, typically older animals, usually win these battles and dominate small herds.

Photo taken on September 8, 2020, in Rocky Mountain National Park, Colorado

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Descriptive keywords and tags for this image include elk, bull elk, male, birds, yellow-rumped warblers, winter, snow, rockies, rocky mountain national park, majestic, antlers, wapiti, deer, horns, buck, resting, wild, wildlife, colorado, cervidae, cervus canadensis, mammals, animals, nature, judi dressler, and dressler.

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September 10th, 2020

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