We’re getting slammed with work… cows to move every which way! I’m trying to help when I can, so I was sent to the mountain to work with Brandon. He was going to fix fence. Now that’s a job I don’t mind doing.
We were very intent on looking along the fence line… seeing that the neighbors had already repaired and put up our lay down fence. I turned to grab something from the back of the side by side and HOLY MOLY! the hillside behind us was moving with elk.
Although fixing fence is a tough job, this is definitely one of the biggest perks of the job… seeing cow elk and all their young calves!
It’s a tricky line… I love seeing them, but one of the reasons we have to repair so much fence???? Yup. Elk. They don’t briskly jump over a fence like a deer does…
As they approached the skyline, they stopped and milled about. Could our neighbors that just repaired our joint fence be around on the other side? Someone or something was… as the elk turned and came back our way.
Some appeared over the ridge…
That encouraged the big bunch to follow over the top… and then they stood there.
We finally figured we should go back to work… and just as I dropped off Brandon to hike down a steep hillside, I looked up to see the elk herd finally taking off… straight through our neighbor’s fence. Uh, J., you might send your boys back up to check the fence! Call it “job security”.
Lots of elk video for a future Re-Red!
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I hear you! For us it’s kangaroos. Now, they CAN jump a fence, but getting their big tails clear is kind of an afterthought and very often as they come down it hits the top wire and either breaks it or snags it in the power wires (or, joy-of-joys, the electric wire). If you get a mob of 50-60 roos going over a fence you can guess how it looks afterwards!
Yes, that sounds like elk.. they TRY to jump but just don’t quite make it and it gets worse the farther back in the herd they are. I’ll show you exactly what that looks like in next week’s Re-Red video.
I showed your post to the guys, they weren’t too thrilled. Thanks for the heads up!
I didn’t figure they would be! Thanks for putting up the lay down fence… we must not have been too far behind you!
Do you suppose they are too big to jump a fence? Or (I hesitate to say this) too dumb? Or just big enough not to need to jump? That is quite a sight. Looking forward to re-red.
I don’t think they’re too dumb… they try… they just have mixed results. Kind of like me when I try anything that takes athletic talent…
Wow! and double Wow!! What a sight! And the photo montage was outstanding ~ it will certainly be a super Re-Red.
WOW! My cousin in South Dakota has told me about seeing 200-300 elk in their hay fields at night at times but I’ve never seen that many elk together even in Yellowstone. Discounting the fence damage, that had to be a incredible sight in real time.
It is. We’re still excited to see elk every time… but then we start fixing fence ONE MORE TIME.
Fabulous photos!!
How cool to see so many elk moving, but…not the fence repair.