This past Sunday morning as I crested a very large hill (Monida Hill) at the west end of the Centennial Valley I noticed an elk calf below me and behind a fence.
As soon as I stopped my pickup and the road noise quit I could tell it was in distress from the almost constant noise it was making. I don’t know what to call that sound so I’ll simply refer to it as a “call”. The sound was pitiful and almost heartbreaking to hear.
To hear the sound and experience what it was like, readers may want to watch this video clip before continuing with this post (it’s the same sound this calf was making). Some may wonder why the driver didn’t simply pull away from the calf and leave it be but he was pulling a trailer with a big, noisy diesel pickup and for the safety of the calf I think I’d have done the same thing.
The calf continued to run along the fence line, changing directions several times. I could see no other elk but there were several deep ravines in the area where they could be hiding if there were any nearby at all.
At one point the calf approached a Swainson’s Hawk perched on the post to the left but the hawk took off just before I snapped this photo.
The little calf seemed so forlorn as it looked longingly over the fence and continued to call out.
Then suddenly four more elk appeared out of the trees at the bottom of the ravine to my right – three adult cows and one younger calf. With my long lens I had to choose which of them I would photograph and at this point I didn’t get any decent shots of the other elk. Notice that these elk are on the near side of the fence.
Then the original calf and its mother were reunited but the fence was still between them.
After a few moments all five elk ran along the fence line to the west and disappeared in the hills and gulleys. These are the two calves with the older one in front and still on the “wrong” side of the fence. I presume that the older calf was eventually able to reunite with its mother. These fences are old and many of them are poorly maintained so there’s usually ample opportunity to cross them, even for calves.
But I don’t think I’ll forget the pitiful call of that calf anytime soon.
Ron
Hearing a young one in stress tears my heart out, great photos that show this and sure they found a solution.
Heart-breaking. I hope (so much) that you are right and they were re-united. No-one (with any intelligence) who listens can continue to promote the idiocy that animals have no feeling.
Great shots Ron, let’s hope it finds a way to reunite.
Charlotte
I’m glad this had a happy ending.
Broght tears to my eyes. Such a moving story. I am hoping it had a very ahppy, reunited ending. Thanks for another great photo story!!!
That sound is heart-rending. This story reminds me of an experience we had with Aoudads (Barbary Sheep) where two adults were jumping fences and the youngster couldn’t make the jump. However, the youngster knew of a place on the ‘home’ side of the fence where it could get under the fence, and it was able to rejoin its parents. One would hope for a similar kind of solution with this elk calf.
Thanks, again, Ron…I wasn’t sure I wanted to hear the clip but finally did…it reminded me of trying to hunt down twin fawns in tall grasses, whose mother, we later found out had been killed by a car. We could hear their bleating cries, but whenever we got close enough to be seen, they fled. We were hoping to get them as soon as they went down, had bottles of goat’s milk ready, and tried our best to find them before it was too late (the property owner had heard them crying all night, so we knew they were hungry and dehydrating). We tried all day but when we finally found them it was too late. The sound haunts me still.
I’ll bet it does, Patty – especially considering how your story ended…
Awww … poor thing … thanks for including the clip with that little cry … bless him … bless them all … as always, glorious photography
Good, I’m glad you appreciated the clip, Lois. Thank you.
Much as I hate barbed wire fences, even worse are abandoned strands of old, irusty fencing…left in the grasses..lying in wait for anything unlucky enough to get caught up in its coils…it causes many, especially horses, to panic and in their struggles to be free, they tear themselves to pieces.
I’ve seen a couple of instances similar to what you describe with horses, Patty. Yes, the results can be horrific.
Very poignant, and I’m glad the reunion occurred. It’s the plaintive quality of the cry, I’m sure, that successfully draws the mother as it breaks our hearts. The most emotionally painful film clip I ever saw was a baby albino lemur who died, crying for its mother, who foraged out of earshot. The baby must have had congenital defects that made it too weak to keep up with the others. The mother later found her dead infant and grieved. Such devastating yet inevitable losses shake empathic onlookers to the core, don’t they?
Yep, they certainly do, Alison.
PS:I called them “cries”….
Works for me, Patty…
Heart breaking! You know how I HATE barbed wire…how it traps pronghorns, dvides up “open, PUBLIC land and tears up horses…I must confess to “helping” a fawn and a calf escape from being on “the wrong side” of this damned stuff…both had been caught behind old, unmaintained fencing , so I………I’m sure hell is lined with the effing stuff!
Patty, I think of you every time I post an image with barbed wire in it. Actually, this land on the west end of the valley is privately owned but your point is still well-made.
Nice picks & story Ron. Glad you’re back in Paradise 🙂 I’m sure the calf got back with it’s Momma.
I strongly suspect it did too, Debbie.