They have a distinguishing creamy-coloured rump patch with stubby tail. A bull elk at his prime is awesome to see. Females weigh one third less than bulls and lack antlers. Bulls grow a new set of antlers each spring and then cast them the following winter. Yearling elk and calves are fast growers, but you can tell them apart from their mothers by the size of their heads.
Young elk have proportionally shorter heads to bodies than adults.
Some people claim you can age a bull elk by the number of branches or tines it has on its antlers. But this is not a true indication of age. A young bull in excellent health may have the same number of tines as a much older bull in poorer condition. In contrast, elk are both grazers and browsers. In summer they eat lots of grasses, plants and leaves to fatten up for the fall mating season and the long winter ahead.