The camo works! Encounters like this can teach hunters a lot when you are able to get this close to an animal. It shows how being still, having control of your scent, and proper camouflage for certain species will work just as planned.
Elk are one massive animal and a favorite in the hunting community. Widely renowned as the best wild game to eat out there, they weigh in up to 1,000-pounds with an incredible rack of antlers that can be up to 6-feet long.
Their bugle during the rut calling to females is one of the coolest sounds you can hear in the woods, and one that excites elk hunters to no end. Why? Because when these bulls are all horned up and looking to mate, that’s when you can catch these incredibly elusive animals slipping.
But, most of the time, it’s just not that easy to get close to one. And to get this close? Damn near impossible…
This video shows the calmness of a hunter in one of these wild situations as a bull elk approaches a man sitting for a bow hunt. Decked out in camouflage being as quiet as possible with little to no movements, the elk doesn’t even really notice him. It walks right up next to him but can tell that something is up.
The elk can smell him slightly so he comes in close for a sniff of the weird tree sitting there. As he sniffs the man’s arm, it scares the elk because he didn’t realize he was that close to something like a human. He immediately knows that he could be in danger.
The elk is scared enough to run off as quick as he can, but lucky for him, it seems like this hunter wasn’t looking for elk today. What an encounter… call up your camo company and send them the footage. It would make for one hell of a commercial.
Yellowstone Bull Elk Halts Traffic
Talk about something you don’t see in my part of the country.
Growing up in South Carolina, I can honestly say I’ve never seen an elk in my 23-years of living. Not one time…
They’re indigenous in North Carolina, but by the 1800s the number of elk in the state was virtually zero. They have since been reintroduced, and right now, an estimated 150-200 elk reside in the state.
But still, they’re pretty hard to find…
I imagine that growing up in a part of the world where you just casually see elk chilling on the side of the road, just minding their own business, the sight of elk my not give you pause, but for most of us, we’re gonna stop and take pictures.
This video comes from Yellowstone National Park, a place where folks travel from thousands of miles away to see elk. Although sometimes, you get a little more than you bargained for.
This group stumbles upon a magnificent creature who lets out a bugle and then proceeds to stand up, and start… PEEING on himself.
The ol’ Elk had been sipping the horny juice, as rutting bulls can sometimes piss on themselves in order to douse themselves in their scent and attract females.
My guy was just getting ready for mating season, and all of these onlookers were getting in the way. Thankfully we had the park ranger hilariously screaming at people to move along.
“Shot at Mammoth Hot Springs in Yellowstone National Park. The ranger soundtrack is great.”
You gotta love Yellowstone though, where else will an elk pissing on his own face cause a traffic jam.
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Young Bull Elk Goes Head To Head With Helpless Photographer
At least he probably got some good pictures out of the whole ordeal…
It’s hard to imagine what you’d do if you found yourself in a predicament like this. A young, aggressive bull elk, has you pinned on the ground, and his two small, but sharp, antlers are just waiting to rip through your neck.
Here, the man stayed incredibly calm which would be nearly impossible to do. Most people would get up and run for the hills, but that’s usually a mistake when it comes to aggressive wildlife. You run, they chase you, you die… it can go bad. Staying as calm as possible is usually the right move in these situations, but you should still try to get away from the animal as quickly as possible.
Even though this elk is young, and perhaps even being a bit playful, it could have seriously injured this man. It could have gored him, stomped him out, or just ran him right over. The video starts with the young bull elk with his forehead pressed up against the mans hear as he sits crisscross applesauce on the ground.
The man keeps his head down as the elk keeps ramming his head into him, and the whole time you’re just waiting for one of those antlers to cut into him. This continues on and the man stays put as the elk even stabs at him a few times. The elk circles around to his backside and the man flips around to see him coming. The elk starts to get a little more aggressive and the man pushes his antlers off a few times.
The wild part is when it backs off for a second and the man starts snapping photos.
This is where I really think he is a little dumb… this animal is fairly aggressive and he is still calm enough to take photos. It makes a person wonder if he does understand the danger. It keeps ramming the man and eventually he gets up and backs up as a car comes in closer. He hops in the vehicle and the elk starts sniffing all his gear. The elk digs through it and they honk at it to scare it off.
Sadly, they ended up in the euthanizing of the Elk according to Gatlinburg Tn Guide.
The elk continued to show signs of aggression and the only real option was to put it down with there being so many people going through the area. The sad part is that it’s all the fault of humans. And really, if this photographer had of backed away and not brought so much attention to the elk it probably would have made out fine.
“The elk had been coming back to that area in search of food, and had begun associating humans with food… it could not be re-trained to be fearful of humans.”
If we let the animals be wild, and enjoy from afar, the risks are much lower and better for nature in general. That’s what these parks are for, it’s not a zoo, the animals are not interactive. When they get used to humans it really never results in much good, not for the tourists, and not for the animals.
Nevertheless, what a wild encounter.
