Dominant male elk fight for control during the season known as “The Rut.”
If you’re driving down the street and accidentally run across a bull elk brawl, you’ll probably be equal parts amazed and terrified.
A video has been making the rounds on social media showing two enormous bull elk sparring on the side of the road in Estes Park, Colorado. In case you’re unfamiliar, that’s the picturesque mountain town known as the “Base Camp for Rocky Mountain National Park.”
Estes Park is packed with wildlife, like moose, mule deer, bighorn sheep, black bears and mountain lions. But elk are one of the most commonly seen animals.
Which is why it’s not out of the ordinary there to come across scenes like this one:
As many of the replies to this post pointed out, this video was likely shot last fall and has recently resurfaced. Because elk don’t typically have those massive racks in early August.
Each winter, usually between February and April, bull elk shed their antlers, and within just a few weeks, they begin to grow new ones. The fresh antlers are covered in what’s called “velvet” — a fuzzy tissue that delivers oxygen and nutrients to help them grow.
By early fall, the antlers reach full size and begin to harden. As testosterone levels rise ahead of the fall mating season (known as the Rut) the blood supply to the antlers cuts off, and the velvet starts to dry out and shed. That’s when bulls rub their antlers against trees and shrubs to peel off the dead velvet and reveal the polished bone underneath.
Fights between bulls — like the one in the first video — typically occur in September and October during the Rut, when dominant males battle for territory and control.
Right now, though, most bulls are still sporting velvet. They’re focused on food, not fights.
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