Male Elk

Posted by Stephen Phillips (San Francisco, United States) on 7 October 2008 in Animal & Insect and Portfolio.

These three male elk are among eight males in this group. What struck me as strange is that this is rutting season. I had just left a large group of about 30 females that were unescorted in a clearing less than 1 km (0.6 mi.) south of here. We will visit those females tomorrow.

[notebook]: This is a long established area of elk that I have been watching for more than 30 years. Their numbers have grown impressively in that time. This is a grove just south of Prairie Creek Redwoods State Park. The large meadow at the heart of Prairie Creek is one of two locations where elk herds were reintroduced to California in the 1970's. The other was in the Sacramento Valley.

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Comments (23)

dj.tigersprout from San Bruno, CA, United States

a beauty of a shot Stpehen, splendid animals indeed! were you quite close? or is this with a good zoom? funny that you mention that here these guys sit -- while an unescorted group of females is just under a mile away! ha! you think they would be able to pick up eachother's scents! ;)

7 Oct 2008 6:11am

@dj.tigersprout: These guys know! Nature makes few mistakes. Stay tuned.

Kylie Greenan from Richmond, Australia

How lucky are you that you get to observe these wonderful animals often and they must feel like your friends having studied them over the years? Wonderful image here and I look forward to seeing the females also Stephen.

7 Oct 2008 6:13am

chrissy from London, United Kingdom

Lovely, well captured, you are ery lucky to be able o obsere them
chrissy

7 Oct 2008 7:18am

@chrissy: Thanks, Chrissy - I am very grateful for the opportunity.

Betty from New Jersey, United States

Nice shot of these elk! Looking forward to more.

7 Oct 2008 9:50am

Lorraine from Gatineau, Canada

Stunning, so beautiful, my gosh

7 Oct 2008 10:33am

Philip from Joburg, South Africa

Great photo of these Elks well captured very nice

7 Oct 2008 10:58am

gbe from kansas city, United States

impressive animals and photo

7 Oct 2008 12:58pm

hugo poon from hong kong, Hong Kong

Enjoy the pleasant and peaceful atmosphere alot! Lovely DOF and tone...

7 Oct 2008 1:45pm

Rui from Leiria, Portugal

WOW Fantastic shot Stephen. They are quite impressive and you are very lucky to have spotted 2 groups of them. Looking forward for tomorrow's shot. Thanks for sharing

7 Oct 2008 2:14pm

Thomas Griffioen from Rotterdam, Netherlands

That's a wonderful image Stephen, well captured! I always got a problem with animals because they never pose the way I want, and that's at the same time the fun of it!

7 Oct 2008 2:42pm

@Thomas Griffioen: Your point is well taken. I have the hundreds of unusable images gathered over the years to prove it.

Zygène from morlaix, France

Une très belle photo que j’aimerai faire moi-même.

7 Oct 2008 3:30pm

@Zygène: Je vous remercie, Zygene. Je heureusement être votre guide à ces lieux doit vous rendre en Californie. Je dois avouer (si je ne l'ai pas dit clairement) - que mon français est seulement aussi bon que «Google Traduction» permet. Profitez de votre journée.

Anthony from Bielefeld, Germany

Great that you can get to see these animals in the wild !! We have a lot of Red deer here in Germany but they tend to stay away from human habitation.

7 Oct 2008 4:15pm

@Anthony: Germany is so highly developed - I am amazed that any mammal could find a habitat where they could avoid human contact.

sherri from Little Rock, Arkansas, United States

Whoa, now there's something you don't see everyday. Exceptional capture. Such splendid creatures.

7 Oct 2008 4:26pm

@sherri: Thank you. My heart was in flight during this whole experience.

Evelyne Dubos from Le Mans, France

A wonderful capture, they are so beautiful !!

7 Oct 2008 4:37pm

alex centrella from California, United States

well captured, so peacefull !

7 Oct 2008 4:46pm

Ana Lúcia from Leiria, Portugal

A marvelous image Stephen.

7 Oct 2008 8:10pm

Viewfinder from Bradenton, United States

Wonderfully captured; I'm looking at the smallish racks of these elk, and am wondering if these are young males, which could explain why they are together and not in the rutting game just yet.

8 Oct 2008 12:47am

@Viewfinder: Ah - either you've read the script - or you know your elk. Stay tuned...

Observing from West Cheshire, United Kingdom

Majestic animals portrayed in this wonderful shot. Excellent framing Stephen. The color and DoF is superb.

8 Oct 2008 2:20am

Paco Díaz from Palma de Mallorca, Spain

Nature, wilderness, peaceful image. Well composed.

8 Oct 2008 3:18am

One from Açores, Portugal

Magnificent capture. What beautiful animals !!!

8 Oct 2008 4:33am

Anthony from Bielefeld, Germany

I presume you´ve never visited germany Stephen !! The Harz moutains,the Alps,the Black forest or the Teutoberger forest are all very secluded moutainous or forested areas that give hundreds of species of animals all they space they need to live and stay away from human contact !!

8 Oct 2008 7:31pm

@Anthony: No I haven't - darn it. The one time I was planning on traveling into the European mainland I was with a friend. We had landed at Heathrow, London. The plan was two days in London - then the train through the Chunnel to Paris - and then all points beyond. It was September 11, 2001. We watched at our hotel near Victoria Station as the second plane went into The Twin Towers. We rented a car and went to the west side of England - up through Wales - back across through Nottingham - over to Hull and Scarborough - and then up to Scotland. It was such a lovely and bittersweet trip. We returned to London. She stayed and hit the museums at shops. I went south to explore Brighton Beach and Dover - a time in Canterbury.

We flew home in a Boeing 757 that was near empty.