One of the nice things about living where we do, just a couple of miles east of the foothills that lead into Estes Park and Entrance to Rocky Mountain National Park, is seeing the Elk "rut". This happens between Sept and Oct each year. Big rack Bull Elk, fight each other with their antlers, for the right to breed with cows. Estes Park is well known for Bull Elk and cows roaming around in the outskirts of town, but in the Rockies is their real home and breeding area. When we lived in our house in Parker, CO, we would try to make it up to the "rut" each year. When we moved back here in 2019, we went up, but it was somewhat too late in October to see them. Last year, due to the Pandemic, people had to sigh up to go into the Park. This year, no sign-ups or anything, so, we are renting a car this coming Saturday AM and driving up to see them. Will have new iPhone 12, Canon digital camera and our Sony video camera with us. Perhaps we'll be lucky enough to hear a Bull "bugle". Below is a full-rack Bull Elk that I took a picture of during the "rut", when we lived here in Colorado before. Quite an impressive rack, huh?
Believe it or not, there are those folks here that think going to the Rockies to see the "rut" is only for tourist. There are folks here that have never been into the Rockies or Rocky Mountain National Park and have no interest in going to the Park. Funny, but there are folks that have been living in Anaheim, California for numerous years that have never been to Disneyland. There are people that live in Orlando that have never been to Disney World.
Pennsylvania Elk Herd – Habitat & History Elk once freely roamed all over Pennsylvania but the rapid settlement and exploitation by early immigrants threatened the herds. By 1867 there were no more elk in Pennsylvania. Unregulated hunting and habitat loss were the biggest factors of their demise. In 1913 the Pennsylvania Game Commission began reintroducing elk in Pennsylvania. The elk herd we know today originated from 177 elk that were trapped and transferred to northern areas of Pennsylvania. The reintroduction of elk took place from 1913 through 1926. The releases in north-central Pennsylvania were successful and the herd now numbers more than 1,400. https://visitpago.com/outdoor-adventures/elk-viewing/
When I lived in Western Washington, we had at least one herd of elk that ranged nearby. They were right down the road from my house in the large field usually, and sometimes they were in people’s yards and eating the flowers and shrubbery. The deer were often out in my pasture, and they seemed to enjoy socializing with my llamas. One llama was an excellent jumper, and she would jump in and out over the pasture fence to play with the deer. One town, named Packwood, which is on White Pass not too far from Mt.Rainier, had herds of elk that basically wintered right in the town each year. You had to be careful driving through the area because the elk were wandering around everywhere.
For those that do live where elk roam, do you ever go into the mountains to see them? For those that no longer live where elk roam, do you miss seeing them? One of the reasons we returned to Colorado's "Eastern Slope" is because we both missed seeing elk in the mountains. Actually, last winter, during a time of no-snow, we past a small herd of full-rack Bull Elk down the street from our apartment complex. We were coming back home from local grocery store and they were eating grass by the parking lot of a fire department. We were told they came down a hiking path thru the mountains and foothills. Anyway, don't see elk in Florida! Heck, we were told that both Whitetail and Mule deer were in Florida, but for the 10 1/2 years living in Jacksonville, never seen any at all. We were also told that a lot of gators could be seen anywhere in Florida. Well, again, for the 10 1/2 years living there, only seen one gator out in the open. It was a young one (teenage size) resting by a fenced-in marsh by a local boat ramp. Took some photos of it and the thing must have really liked having it's photo taken.
I have never heard of mule deer in Florida, but there are whitetails in the Panhandle at least if not the Peninsula. I remember a friend telling me about an encounter in Erie, Pennsylvania. A hunter from Ohio somewhere, perhaps Cleveland, stopped at a gas station near Erie and bragged about the great deer he had shot in northern PA. My friend went to view his deer and found he had one of those elk mentioned in @Ed Wilson's post above. I believe he was reported and was fined a great deal of money as well as losing his "deer".
The elk were down in the meadows in the Great Smokey Mountains National Park when we were there a couple of weeks ago. There was some bugling but not as much as two years ago at this time. The big boys were keeping their eyes on their ladies and the young boys were milling around thinking about what young boys think about..... Every now and then one of the young elks gets a little daring and has to be put in his place. We had an elk wander through the parking lot at the hotel and a couple down at the river were hanging out. The "town elk" are kind of nonchalant about people..."Oh, you want to walk here? Well, just hold your horses til I get out of your way." At least they're better than moose, who occasionally fall in love with a lawn tractor or a VW Beetle and want to set up housekeeping with it. We saw a couple of bears, too. They're fattening up for the winter nicely. I didn't get to see it, but apparently there was one scrounging around the pool deck looking for treats....right under our balcony. Heavens, I love the North Carolina mountains!
@Cody Fousnaugh What is your point, grandma? I lived in Illinois for 30 years, but never saw Starved Rock....... Frank
My point is, sometimes I wonder why a person would live in an area, that has notable things, but never go to see those notable things. I know that sometimes it's a job transfer that relocates a person somewhere where they would never make the choice to live themselves. "Job transfer or unemployment office", they are told are their choices. My BIL (wife's brother) lives just north of Ft. Lauderdale, Florida, just a couple of miles from the beach, but never goes to the beach. During the 10 1/2 years we lived in Jacksonville, Florida, we only went to the beach, at Jacksonville Beach, three or four times. After thinking about that, and a few other things concerning Florida, we decided to move back to Colorado.
I lived there for six years in the 1970s and never felt more at home anywhere else. I loved the people there, although I have been told the population has changed due to in-migration from other places.
I come from a long line of Tarheels. Even though I've never lived there "permanently" (we did live in the Blue Ridge for four months every summer for six years), I feel that it is my spiritual "home". North Carolinians (with, of course, exceptions as there are any place else) are the salt of the earth, the nicest and friendliest people you'll ever come in contact with. The mountains are calling and I must go......
I lived there for six years in the 1970s and never felt more at home anywhere else. I loved the people there, although I have been told the population has changed due to in-migration from other places.
Update: Sort of long, but it tells about the disappointment of the "entrance reservation required" to get in the Park and a little later, after leaving the Park, the Elk we did see. We did call about the reservation, but all reservations for the day had been filled. Had a car reserved for yesterday morning and picked it up. It was a nice 2021 Nissan Maxima, but not the kind of car we'd ever want. Just too small. Drove nice and got to listen to Sirius Radio for $6 (for the day). First, we found out, while renting the car, Rocky Mountain National Park went back to "reservations required" to enter park, until 3PM (due to Covid 19 again). But, we decided to go anyway and try to find things to do until 3PM. That "reservations required will end on Oct. 11, but the "rut" is over by then. Since it had been two years since we'd gone up to Estes Park and into RMNP, we didn't realize that, from our apartment, it's 28 miles of climbing and a whole lot of curves to Estes Park. There was some kind of Festival going on in Estes Park and the town was packed with people. IOW, lots and lots of traffic! Very few people wearing masks, including us. Got some lunch at the Festival (outside eating). It was about 5 blocks to the Festival, so we definitely got exercise. After eating, we still had over an hour until 3PM, but we tried to enter, but "no go" and had to turn around. Headed to RMNP Visitors Center for awhile. We noticed a number of vehicle lined up along the side of the road leading into the entrance to the Park. All waiting until 3PM. We got into line as well and there was a very long line behind us. Drove up and up and up and up and didn't see a single elk (bull or cow), but many, many empty vehicles of hikers. Don't know how high we were, before turning around, but, definitely high enough to make my wife start getting scared and crying a little. And, no Guard Rails along the highway. None! While coming down, we seen many, many vehicles going up. We did stop and see a few mountain sheep grazing near a pond. While in the Park, two hiker told us about a herd of cows and a couple of bull elk they had seen in the Estes Park Golf Course. So, as we passed the Course..............right there they were! A very nice full-rack bull and a number of cows. So, our disappointing time in RMNP ended with seeing elk at the golf course. The course itself was closed, but people were able to stop in and see/photo the elk. As we did. We were told, the day before, Friday evening, around 300 cows and a few bulls came down from a nearby hill to a small pond, for water, and ended up on the course. Some bulls were even seen fighting (antler/racks) for domination over breeding with the cows.
Guess my "update" was too long. LOL Anyway, like last winter here, we will probably see both some bulls and cows right around where we live. It's just really weird how both bulls and cows can walk a hiking path, which would be over 35 miles, from the Rockies, down to here.