THE RUT

That night, the bugling seemed to last forever, making it impossible to sleep. By morning, the young bull elk was hoarse. He had been announcing his readiness to get it on with the lady elk in the neighborhood all night long and all he had to show for it was a sore throat.

Poor guy. His troubles were about to get worse.

Elk rut. Two tiny words that carry beautiful animals into the next generation. An annual ritual of procreation and elk lust. Normally bull elk either wander alone or with other bull elk. But during the Rut, every additional bull elk is just competition.

Here at Mammoth, the Rut comes at the same time the last mass of tourists are visiting and the Park’s high elevations are beginning to get colder. And when it starts getting colder, bear, elk and bison move down to slightly warmer environs. Mammoth is one of the lower elevations in the Park and it has an added draw – the historic lawn planted at the time Mammoth Hot Springs was the home of the US Army troop charged with protecting the World’s first National Park.

Elk, like other grazers, primarily eat grasses and leaves. During the Fall, as the natural grasses and leaves turn brown and no longer offer nutrition for the elk, the well-irrigated richly green historic lawns of Mammoth offer easily accessible food for the cows, their calves and then the bulls who will join them.

Right now, according to the Mammoth Rangers and Xanterra’s security guards, there are up to four bulls prowling the hills and grazing on the lawns at Mammoth. The trouble begins when one elk, usually the dominant older and more experienced elk, has gathered his ‘harem’, an indiscriminate group of cows who are coming into estrus. The cows are accompanied by their calves, many of whom are still nursing. The bull must keep his harem around him because it is the female, not the male, who calls the shots on when the bull can mount. He just needs to be in the right place at the right time.

It is often quite humorous to watch the frustrated bull as he continues to round up his wandering harem. The lady elk wander in search of even more succulent grass. The calves will often wander, too, prompting Mom to come find them at their plaintive call. The dominant Mammoth elk, an enormous 6x7 (6 point on one antler and 7 points on the other), sometimes must leave the proximity of the harem to gather up a wandering cow.

And when the bull leaves the herd, one of the other elk in the neighborhood, watching from up on the hill or around the corner of a building, comes courting, swooping down into the harem to entice some of the lady elk to trot away with him. If the dominant elk spies the intruder, the bull thunders toward the intruder, menacing him by brandishing his larger rack, curling his lips and grinding his teeth. He may even hiss at the interloper. And this plays out nearly every day on the green grounds at Mammoth.

A bull may interpret a nursing yearling bull, called a ‘Spike’ for his tiny growing points, as a threat and chase him away from his mother. The mother may then go after the yearling prompting the bull to leave long enough to herd the mother back to the harem. All the Spike wants to do is nurse. But the bull is generally indiscriminate – not only will he consider Junior a threat but he also doesn’t cull out the ‘healthiest’ or the ‘best-looking’ or the ones with 'family issues'. The job that Mother Nature gave him is to procreate – as many times and with as many cows as possible during the Rut. And he does not appreciate interference with the task he has been given.

I watched a bull frantically trying to keep his harem together from the safety of the Visitor Center with many other watchers, including several with very large telescopic lenses that identify them as professional wildlife photographers. Of course, there are always a few elk-obsessed well-equipped amateur photographers around as well. Some visitors even delay their visits to Yellowstone JUST to catch the elk action.

I swear the tourists don’t read the ‘DANGER; Do Not approach the Elk” signs posted all over Mammoth. Between them and the photographers who make their living putting themselves in dangerous proximity to nature’s most interesting beats, the Rangers and the Xanterra security guards are in constant motion whenever the cows gather on the lawns at Mammoth.

All this activity aggravates the bull elks, who are chronically short of sleep and sometimes food from their vigilant watch over their harem. One particularly active night, the Rangers had to divert traffic away from the lawns in order to keep people safe from one really pissed off bull.  As I watched safely from my dorm room window right across from the largest open patch of lawn at Mammoth, one of the younger but still many-pointed bulls, clearly agitated by all the people and activity, went for anyone close enough to warrant his attention or, alternatively, their cars parked perpendicularly to the lawn. I’m sure several of those vehicles are now in the body shop getting at least their grills repaired

The tourists and their vehicles are not the only ones susceptible to the elk bulls’ damage. One of the Rangers drove around Mammoth for several days with cardboard duct-taped to her passenger window, the result of inserting her vehicle between an angry elk bull and our visitors. One of my dorm mates was taking her nightly walk around the Terraces when a Ranger’s SUV screeched to a halt in front of her, throwing his passenger door open. “Get in now. A bull is charging you.”  Acting quickly, she jumped in the vehicle and the Ranger sped a safe distance away.  She hadn’t even made eye contact with the bull. He just saw her and decided she needed to be punished for being in his way.

Rangers do their best to keep the visitors apart from the elk but often the visitors are uncooperative. They walk toward the elk, wanting to get a picture of those massive antlers. Or they position family members in front of the herd in order to capture Johnny with the elk. Visitors crowd the cows and frighten the calves. They pull their cars up in the night, shining their brights on the sleeping cows and calves intending to…..well, I’m not sure what their intentions are for that stupid trick.  However, the night the bull went berserk that very same spell-bound crowd speedily raced to their cars during a moment of calm and moved them to safety. Sometimes actions speak louder than words. I was rooting for the bull.

So what are the cows during this time? From what I can tell, mostly grazing, calling to their calves and resting on the lush lawn. When they are ready, they will offer themselves to the nearest attractive bull in order to breed their next calf. They are in charge and the bulls are just their nervous suitors. Once the bulls have done their duty to the cows, the cows are done with them, perfectly happy and able to raise the calves on their own and let the bulls go off into the forest to play fight or do whatever the bulls do when they are not in Rut.

Why are we humans to fascinated by these animals during Rut? I’ve been thinking about this. Of course, there is the sheer size and magnificence of a 6x7 point bull elk. Our guy here in Mammoth is huge, perhaps near to 1,000 pounds. His muscles ripple when he charges. The others are also quite large just not as big as the 6x7. Generally, the number of points of a bull’s rack indicates the bull’s ability to find food- lots and lots of food.

It takes lots of good nutrition to grow such a fine rack. To do so, he must be hearty, healthy and smart. He must be able to avoid danger and predators. He must be able to do all this and still prepare himself each year for the Rut.  Is it possible that some primal part of our natures connect with the sheer power of a bull elk? Possibly. I know when I watch a bull elk thunder down the lawn I am fascinated with his size and power.  I can imagine a culture which grew up on football heroes must see an elk as the ultimate competitor – and the fact that he is competing for continuation of the species is also compelling.

I also find female elk fascinating because the sexual tables are turned for them. Our human culture has traditionally raised its females to dress prettily, act prettily, be pretty; traditional gender roles require the female to work really hard to attract a suitable mate. With elk, a female in estrus, ready to be impregnated, need only welcome the attention of the bull of her choosing and then she’s off to do her own thing until next year. Something quite free and independent about that. I can’t help but admire the lady elks, too.

Whatever the reason we are drawn to elk, we are drawn in droves. Even I can’t help but respond to this particular ‘call of the wild’. I generally believe staying far away from wild animals keeps them wild but I admit to bending my core principles when it comes to the Rut. Life, especially love, would be so much simpler if our choices were driven by pure instinct rather than sentience. Or would that take away all the fun of being human?