Just because they’re penned up at the zoo doesn’t mean they aren’t wild animals.
Not a day goes by where I don’t come across an impressive wildlife-in-action video on the internet. Typically, the videos are from animals that are actually out in the wild. Rarely do I see footage of a bison and an elk going toe-to-toe (or maybe hoove-to-hoove?)… inside of a zoo.
The North Carolina Zoo, to be specific.
The “NCZOO” shared a video a couple of days ago showing one of their bison and one of their bull elk getting into a game of chicken (sorry if all those animal names all together in the same sentence is confusing). My first question was, “Why are the bison and the elk in the same area? Did they find a hole in the fence or something?”
As it turns out, the North Carolina Zoo has an exhibit that they refer to as the “short grass prairie,” where elk and bison roam around together. They describe the area of the zoo on their website, saying:
“The great prairies of the American Midwest were once home to gigantic herds of bison. At the North Carolina Zoo, experience our short-grass prairie complete with a herd of bison and elk that can be viewed from four overlooks.”
Pretty cool, eh?
What’s even cooler is seeing the two different species interacting with one another. That’s on full display in this video, which shows a bison and a bull elk trading small, controlled blows. The bison uses his horns, and the elk uses his antlers. Because the elk has the larger rack, it has the upper hand… which resulted in the bison briefly sparring before getting the “zoomies” and running away.
The bull elk celebrated the small victory with an echoing bugle before returning to the cows (female elk) that were standing nearby. It’s quite the wildlife scene, and it all played out within the confines of the North Carolina Zoo. Seems like the place to go if you want to do some guaranteed bison and elk spotting.
Check it out:
That’s worth the price of admission right there.
There were a lot of social media users in the comments section cracking jokes about the two, zoo-living animals squaring up. One person referred to the bison as “Mike Byson,” which deserves five out of five stars in my humble opinion. Here’s what others had to say about the elk and the bison playfully getting into each other’s grills:
“Well that’s an unexpected combo.”
“Never a dull moment out there.”
“The bison was like, ‘Just wait until you shed that rack buddy….cause I don’t shed mine!'”
“That bison’s got moxie.”
“He didn’t want the smoke.”
The bison may not have wanted the smoke right then and there, but something tells me that he’ll slowly build up the courage for another face off in the near future. Like two roommates in a grudge match to see who takes the trash out first (and these big ol’ guys are basically roommates), this bison and elk coming to blows isn’t a matter of if… it’s a matter of when.
