The Elk Rut

by Maeve

We arrived at Rocky National Park for the Elk Rut. This is what they call the mating season for elk. In fact, the very late night we arrived, we could hear screams while putting up the tent. Mama was a little worried because she didn’t know what it was (she thought it was maybe a terrified owl.) We found out it was elk. The bulls (which are fully grown male elk) want to attract the cows (which are female elk) and so they make that noise called bugling. 

Elk belong to the deer family and are ungulates which means hoofed mammals. Only males grow antlers. They lose them and grow new ones every year. The antlers are made of bone and when they are growing, they have fur on them called velvet. The bulls’ main job is to eat. They eat a lot of grass! When the antlers have grown to their full size (up to 40 pounds!) the elk begins to rub the velvet off and it’s mating season. The rut always happens in the fall. A bull tries to attract a lot of female cows by battling other bulls and being strong, big, and healthy. 

There are hundreds of elk in Rocky Mountain National Park and also in Estes, a town nearby.  We saw some elk, mostly female but also a couple with big antlers. They were really cool. We went to a talk called Elk Echoes which is a ranger who tells you all about the elk. We could hold some antlers there and they were sooooo heavy.

PS from Sam

Male elk can be up to 8 feet long and 800 lbs. Females are slightly smaller at 6 feet and 600 lbs.