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Saturday, August 20, 2011

A pair of bull elk clowns

Today was another in a string of days where nothing went as expected. So, rather than tell you more about our trip, I'm going to share a series of funny photos that my motion-activated wildlife camera captured while I was away.

A hulking bull elk with a large rack of velvet antlers arrived on the scene with a younger bull elk in the background. Male elk sometimes stay behind in their winter range while the rest of the herd is up high in the alpine meadows. I always thought that these males migrated to join the herd before the rut began in September. However, last year, I captured photos of a huge bull elk in our forest when I knew that the rut was in full swing up high. For that reason, I'm no longer sure of whether these males ever head up to the alpine meadows during the summer.
He was fascinated with the camera.

The next one might be a closeup of his eyelashes.
Then, he rammed the camera with his velvet antlers. Fortunately, the strong security case for the camera protected it.
After ramming the camera didn't put it out of commission, he just stood like a statue in front of the camera for a long time, giving us a great view of his muscular legs and shoulders.
Finally, one more attempt at the "evil" eye.

On the next evening, the pair arrived again. This time, the younger bull with "spike" velvet antlers investigated the camera.
This pair of clowns made me laugh out loud at their antics!

12 comments:

  1. Those are great. I was surprised to see the antlers were still in velvet. I don't know a lot about the elk but our moose have already started to loose most of their velvet.

    But then, Moose is moose and elk is elk.

    I love the pictures.

    Thanks again

    bert

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  2. Marvellous how natur interacts with us.

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  3. Great pics, maybe they were doing a test take for a future appearance on American Idol:)

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  4. Silly things. That's interesting that, maybe, the bulls don't head up to the alpine meadows with the herd. I just bet that, when the rut starts, that young bull is going to get the chasing of his life. "No more tag along, youngster. Go find your own girls, if you can, haw haw haw."

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  5. Excellent series of photos! I always find animal interactions with trail camera amusing. I have had a bear dislodge mine from its hiding place a couple of times. Always so funny!

    Marilyn

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  6. Those photos are purrty funny. Its almost like they know they are on camera

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  7. That second shot cracked me up! He totally looks like he's mugging for the camera!

    Are you sure those are eyelashes and not chin hairs? I don't know how you can tell the difference for sure!

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  8. Great close ups! Such beautiful animals! And all in your backyard!
    xoxo

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  9. Never had a deer try to horn one of my cameras. That different.

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  10. Determined boys, aren't they? Great photos.

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