Bull Elk - Wapiti

by Donna Kennedy

Title

Bull Elk - Wapiti

Artist

Donna Kennedy

Medium

Photograph - Photographs

Description

Original Fine Art Photography and digital artwork by Donna Kennedy-
Photographed at Bear Country USA, Rapid City, South Dakota

Nestled over 200 acres amidst towering pines and along rolling meadows just eight miles south of Rapid City, Bear Country U.S.A. offers visitors intimate views of most North American mammals. Visitors take a leisurely three-mile drive thru the park and encounter black bear, elk, reindeer, deer, cougars, bobcats, rocky mountain goats, bighorn sheep, dall sheep, pronghorn and buffalo.
Visitors are asked to stay in your vehicle with windows up for safety. All the animals roam free, the way nature intended.

Elk (Cervus canadensis) also called “Wapiti”, which is the Cree Indian word for “white” referring the color of the animal’s rump. Weighing in at up to 700 pounds, the North American elk stands as one of the biggest deer species on earth. But don’t think that just because an elk is large that it’s slow. A mature bull can run as fast as 40 miles per hour – they’ve even been able to outrun horses in short races. And that’s not all. Elk can jump eight feet vertically. Each March the bulls shed their rack of antlers. The rack will drop off completely and the next one is already starting to grow. The new antlers, which grow almost an inch a day, are filled with blood vessels and can weigh up to 35 pounds. The antlers have a velvet-like covering, which is why we call this process “in the velvet.” They will reach their full length in mid-summer when the blood vessels inside dry up and the much-lighter antler becomes calcified like a bone. Preparing himself for breeding season, the bull runs the velvet off on tree limbs and sharpens the tines.

Thank you to the Administrators that Featured this photo in the following Groups:
-Animal Photographs
-Animals
-Fine Art America Professionals
-Animals and Birds in the Wild
-Wildlife One A Day
-Just Perfect

Uploaded

October 12th, 2022

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