(Click on photos to enlarge)
What a phenomenal trip our family was able to experience and only 45 minutes from our cabin here in Dillsboro, NC! Our five-year-old son, Gannon, now has this experience of a lifetime - watching the male elk bugle and exhibit their dominance, challenging other males, & also attracting the female cows ... click here to listen those same bugling sound that we heard!
In Cataloochee, NC (located in the Great Smoky Mountain National Park) we were able to view up close, and personal, this ritual that takes place each and every season. We also learned that the fastest growing tissue, in the entire world, belongs to the male elk & is it's antlers. In March the male's shed their gigantic rack (adult males have antlers that may reach a width of five feet) but by August of each year the antlers will regrow entirely!
We were fortunate enough to view a 'harem' of cows following these male bulls and also lucky enough to observe the actual sparring of two males - smashing antlers to antlers - fighting for dominance!!! We highly recommend this outing ... it is something you and your family will remember forever, plus it wasn't very crowded in the park at all! Let me put it this way, it's much less crowded than Disney and this is a REAL life experience -vs- one of fiction!
Elk Facts
FALL: male elk make their legendary bugling calls to challenge other bulls and attract cows. Their calls may be heard a mile or more away. Large bulls use their antlers to intimidate and spar with other males. Most encounters are ritualistic and involve little physical contact; only occasionally do conflicts result in serious injuries to one or more combatants. During the "rut" in September and early October, dominant bulls gather and breed with harems of up to 20 cows.
SIZE: adult males weigh an average of 600-700 pounds. Cows average 500 pounds. Adults are 7-10 feet long from nose to tail and stand 4.5 - 5 feet tall at the shoulder. Adult males have antlers that may reach a width of five feet.
OFFSPRING: cows usually give birth to only one calf per year. Newborns weigh about 35 pounds. They can stand within minutes of birth and calf and cow usually rejoin the herd within a couple of weeks. Calves nurse for 1-7 months. Females are ready to breed in the second autumn of their lives.
Most of the elk are located in the Cataloochee area in the southeastern section of the park. The easiest way to reach Cataloochee is from Interstate highway I-40. Exit I-40 at North Carolina exit #20. After 0.2 mile, turn right onto Cove Creek Road and follow signs 11 miles into Cataloochee valley. Allow at least 45 minutes to reach the valley once you exit I-40.
For more detailed info. click here. (NPS - Smoky Mountains National Park)
Click here for wilkipedia info. on the elks & the rut.
photo credit of single, large male elk ... http://www.outdoorphotographer.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=2625&p=10122
