A photographer was taking pictures in Great Smoky Mountains National Park when a bull elk approached. A dangerous situation. There’s sadness ahead, so watch the video without reading further if you want to keep it light.
From the photographer (the man in the video getting poked by the elk):
“My first thoughts were “wow, he’s getting pretty damn close here.” But I’ve been up close before without incident. I hoped being still and passive would see him pass on. When he lowered his antlers to me, I wanted to keep my vitals protected and my head down. I felt that standing up would provoke him more and leave me more vulnerable to goring. I think that while protecting myself with my head down, having my head down was a signal that I was rutting with him. I was concerned at first, but when he started rearing back and lunging at me later on, I got scared and pissed off. That’s when I wagged my finger at him to cut that shit out. I was relieved to see the Ranger coming.
So I guess at some point if the Ranger hadn’t of pulled up, I would have had to disengage the best I could. I’ve joked with my friends that at least he took me for a buck and not a cow!”
I found the video riveting. Sadly, because of repeated patterns of aggressive behavior, the park service made a controversial decision to put the elk down.
So my 2 questions are, who shot this video?, and why didn’t the person in the SUV behind him pull up to help this guy out?
If you read the description on the Youtube video, the videographer says, “much of the time wondering when I should seriously consider intervening.”
Having been in situations with a dozen or so Elk in a herd (on a motorcycle in Banff National Park), part of the problem is the photographer is acting so calmly. Most of us know so little about these kinds of creatures that we don’t know how they act. The photographer “victim” wasn’t asking for help or acting stressed. The elk’s actions could be considered “playful”. The photographer seemed more concerned about his hat showing his bald spot than in getting away.
I don’t think he was worried about his bald spot, I think he was worried about the elk tearing up the top of his head. The hat provided enough protection to keep that from happening.
Perhaps but he didn’t seem worried enough to get out of the situation when he could or to ask for help from others.
lovely – humans intrude into animal’s natural territory, animal stands up for itself, animal is executed for it.