Elk are smart and elk are curious. Lots of elk passed by this bobcat photo-trap (intended to camera catch a bobcat, not kill one! I used shiny objects and a road-killed bunny), and all of them were very curious. Most really liked that shiny DVD I hung up. Listen to the calls that are on the entire clip. This is mostly what one would call ‘cow talk’. Elk are all real communicative, and ‘talking’ is just way they do it. Rubbing noses, following their lead cow’s cues, and watching how others are responding to potential danger are some others. This all takes place on my property at around 7am. You can see elk in the beginning of the clip in the upper left feeding in my front meadow.
Filed under: Elk | Tagged: Elk, Elk bugling |
Leslie Patten Books: Wild Places, Sacred Spaces 
I wish elk still lived in Georgia. I have never seen a live elk, even in a zoo.
Don’t be surprised if the elk eat the dead rabbit. There is a photo on the internet of a deer eating a dead rabbit. Deer will scavenge meat and nestling birds.
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I wish too! Elk were plains animals and like so much of our last remaining wildlife, were driven into the mountains where people were not living–at least in the 1800’s and most of the 1900’s. All that of course is changing.
I have never seen an elk or deer eat a rabbit. I had dozens of clips of these elk and most all of them were more curious about the bright shiny hanging things, than the dead rabbit. But I have seen deer, and elk, smell my bait, or maybe my own scent on the camera, dozens of time, checking out something new and odd in their environment. That being said, I’ve learned that I have to protect my bait, small bait, from squirrels who do eat meat when available.
In the end, a fox got the rabbit. I’ll post those pix soon. Thanks for watching!
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