I filmed this Roosevelt Elk in October of 2019 while exploring the forests of Redwoods National Park.
I spent 8 days exploring the Redwoods from southern Oregon all the way south to Humboldt State Park with a goal of getting good footage of male elk during mating season. One afternoon I tracked a pair of Elk on a remote beach for hours, but was unable to locate them. The following day I finally found one; a solo male in the forest, just steps from the ocean. I watched him for about 10 minutes as he wandered through the forest, until he passed a tree that had the bark stripped off of it; and that certainly got his attention. For the next 25 minutes I filmed him as he aggressively rubbed his face, his head, and his antlers up and down the tree.
I’m pretty stoked with how the footage turned out, I hope you enjoy watching!
The Roosevelt elk mating season (the rut) takes place every fall, prompted by shorter day lengths. Males (bulls) breed with a number of females (cows) during this time, and exhibit some amazing behaviors.
Roosevelt Elk will rub their antlers against trees, shrubs and the ground to impress cows or to show dominance.
Roosevelt elk are a major conservation success story. Slaughtered nearly to extinction by settlers, there were only a few hundred animals left when conservation efforts began. Now the elk number in the thousands and they are being reintroduced to many areas of their original range.
Elk are the second largest members of the deer family, second only to Moose. Adult males weigh 750-1100 lbs, females weight 380-650 lbs. Mature males boast large multi-branched antlers, while the shorter antlers of young males (called spikes) usually are unbranched. Females do not have antlers.
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