Tag Archives: elk

A Family of Elk Along Bow River

While walking down by the Bow River, we saw a family of elk off in the distance. They were crossing the river downstream. We continued on our walk and, when we finished the loop trail, we were back at the same spot and saw plenty of people on the bridge staring in the same direction. I hurried up to see what was afoot and the elk had moved up the river to close where we were. Oh, how I wish I had a longer lens!

Amazingly, the people along the river seemed to have no interest in the warnings you always get about wildlife. They were getting way closer than seemed wise. The bull elk was a chunky looking fella and, with some of his herd there, I imagine his temper might be tested. Fortunately, nothing went wrong. Interestingly, he had a tree branch stuck in his antlers when we first saw him. He did manage to shake that out after a while. It made him look lopsided!

Bull Elk

Our ride through the refuge was covered in this post.  Scattered throughout the herd were a large number of bull elk.  At this time of year they are not competing for anything other than food so there was little tension between them.  Instead, they seemed focused on feeding.  However, they still had antlers so they made an imposing sight when they looked the right way.