Elk Can Jump!

Elk will do almost anything for high quality food.  I found elk near every horse barn in the town of Estes Park, Colorado during the month of March.  Where there was a haystack and loose hay there was elk nearby.  I even saw elk in the same pens as horses!  The annoyed horses just had to give the elk a look and put their ears back to chase it away.   Elk can easily jump barbed wire and wooden fences of moderate height.  Elk farms require ten-foot fences to keep elk in.  

This cow was the either showing off or not very smart. All the other elk jumped the three rail fence in the right of the picture.  But not this cow.  She decided to jump the four rails to get at the loose hay scraps the horses didn’t eat.  If you know anything about horse jumping you’d be impressed with her style.  Here front legs are tucked up well against her body as she jumps.  What’s more she didn’t even have a running start.  She walked up to the fence, took a look as to measure the jump then took a step back and leaped right over it.  I was amazed how quiet elk could be when jumping.  They never touched the rails of the fence and their landing appeared soft.  Elk took turns jumping back and forth over this fence.  A spike approached at the same time a cow was returning from inside the pen.  She seemed bothered by his presence.  She would lift her front legs up as to practice only to let her legs fall back to the ground.  She’d put her ears back and circle around for another attempt.  Finally the young spike backed off so she could return to the other side of the fence.  

            This is a photo of a smarter cow elk. She jumped over the lower part of the fence. Some elk would search up and down the fence line to find a place where they thought they could jump over and make it.  The black object in these photos is a large, hollow tractor tire where the hay gets thrown into for the horses.  Horses are larger than most elk.  However, some bulls can reach up to 1,000 pounds.   My Dad and I once saw a large bull in the wilderness who seemed to own the place.  He went wherever he wanted bugling at his cows.  I would say he was the same size or larger than most quarter horses.  What a sight it was to see such a huge elk during the rut!

Here are three other photos of different cows jumping over the fence to eat alfalfa crumbs left over from the horses at Sombrero Ranches in Estes Park.

 

 

 

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