Unicorns are usually reserved for fairytales, but if you are looking a real life example, one of the closest things you’ll find is this bull elk in Estes Park, Colorado.
This elk actually has both sides of its antlers, so it’s not technically a unicorn. There’s just one side that’s… well, not where it’s supposed to be. Nature is a beautiful place, even when it comes to Mother Nature’s so called “accidents.” The bull elk in this footage has a left rack that is in its normal place, but as for the right side?
The antler is protruding right out of the middle of the elk’s forehead.
Obviously, that positioning isn’t super convenient. But the male elk looks to be handling it like a champ, and since it made it to shed season, it will briefly get a break from the inconvenient appendage.
Here it was on video before it lost its unicorn antler:
At first I was thinking that elk could be at a disadvantage if it got into an altercation, but with that positioning of its “front” antler, it might actually be better off than other elk. That thing could basically out-joust other animals and it would undoubtedly do some damage.
However, it’ll have to go without its antlers for a while after a photographer was able to confirm that the “unicorn” elk had shed its rack. It won’t be that long though, as elk can grow their antlers back at a rate of an inch per day. For reference, when a white tailed deer sheds its rack, they only grow back around 1/4 of an inch daily.
That means that it could be anywhere from three to five months before the “unicorn horn” is back to its full grown state. I’m sure the bull elk has mixed feelings about getting its rack back. It’s probably looking forward to getting them back for defense purposes, though I’m sure it hasn’t minded the time it has had to, you know, see without obstruction and not have an antler almost picking its nose involuntarily.
You can check out the “unicorn” bull elk in its non-antler state below:
