Female elk licking her calf a few hours after entering the world of Yellowstone.
Our day began with spirited adventure on Wednesday, May 25th. After a week of getting up at 4 am in order to lead wildlife tours, I awoke early yesterday morning and meandered to the office. Still groggy from a lack of sleep, my fingers lingered on each letter as I attempted to respond to countless emails that needed attention. But my sleepy stupor quickly vanished when my wife came bursting into the office to tell me about her wild encounter with a protective and edgy cow elk. It is certainly that time of year. Upon being asked when the elk have their calves in Yellowstone, we are taught as rangers in the park to stick with the common drop date of June 1st.
Perhaps we in the Leach Clan get too stuck on the calendar and thought we still had a week of normalcy around the office and house, but any such visions of peaceful tranquility quickly vanished yesterday morning. Simply looking to go for a morning run, my wife encountered a cow elk which is not at all uncommon around our place. What was uncommon was the aggressive nature of their encounter. Both upon leaving the house and arriving back home, Crystal shared a memorable encounter with a defensive mother, adding a great deal of excitement and adrenaline to her morning cardio session.
While many eager runners across the country worry about traffic or the occasional oddball while training under the faded light of dawn and dusk, we are on alert for protective ungulates with stomping hooves and newly born calves. Within minutes of hearing her story of “survival” I decided to venture out myself for what I hoped would be a few photos of my first elk calf of 2011. Not wanting to push the female or alarm the wobbly calf, new to the world, I kept my distance. Simply walking out of the backdoor I put the mother on alert, so the photo isn’t the clearest, but this image represents yet another sign that spring is in full force throughout Yellowstone…
~Michael Leach, Director and Founder
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