Herding Em' Up!

[SeatoSummit88]

My folks live half the year in Colorado. About 30 minutes from Rocky Mountain National Park.  Their neighbors are Elk conservationists and have become good friends over the years.  They have had the privilege to get to check out parts of the park that a lot of people don't get to see.  They have had up close lone bull experiences while tracking satellites along creek bottoms and walking near herds when lead bulls are pushing and getting cows in order. Here is a picture and video they just sent over the other day.  Just wanted to share some cool Elk footage.

[Tikka Bird Dog]

very cool pic. looks like he took a tine to his ham. pretty good cut, looks like its leaking. damn animals are tough

[SeatoSummit88]

Thank you! Ya I was talking to them and they said he was just mindlessly walking the creek and not really caring about much, probably a fight got him down...ha.  They have been in a couple of prime rut up close and personal situations where they were kneeling behind some pines and listening to their friends talk about rut fights and there was a 5 point bull hanging with about 4 or 5 cows when this huge 7x7 comes waddling up behind these shrubs and they just went at it! Full bore rack rattling concussions. They said the ground was just electrifying with vibrations. If only!

[Tikka Bird Dog]

what a cool thing to have witnessed!! all the time i have been in the hills over the years, i have never witnessed a full on fight like that. deer or elk. just light sparring. i have found spots where they had fought the night before, hair and a tore up ground, but never seen it in person. i did kill a buck a few years back that was on a hillside with multiple rutting deer and after the big buck was laying there dead, a small two pt came down the hill and beat the ever livin piss out of him. can still see scars in his cape on the wall. craziest thing i ever saw a blacktail do.