Two months later, while the leaves at home are changing colors and the pronghorn antelope, deer, moose, mountain goats, elk, caribou, and musk oxen are ignoring basic needs like food, sleep, and safety in a frenzy of dominance and procreation, I'm atop a high ridge in the Scottish Highlands. I'd hoped to visit Yellowstone National Park in Wyoming for the elk rut, that wild songfest of chilly mornings and graceful bulls balancing their antlers through the dense forest. But work called, and I'm halfway around the world, filming with the Anyplace Wild TV crew. As the moorland mists contort like Shakespearean ghosts, the damp air echoes with the sound of urgent mooing, much like angry cattle. It's the rutting cry of red deer stags.
Elk are the most vocal and polygamous of the deer family.
Mature stags will typically assemble, discipline, and defend harems of up to 30 cows. Every college boy's fantasy, granted, but truth is, it's hard being a potentate. Few bulls can successfully defend their harem throughout the rutting season without losing their multiple loves to a challenger. Those that do succeed barely eat or sleep for more than a month. Injuries and exhaustion diminish their chances to survive the coming winter.