Jim Coda Nature Photography

February 27, 2012May 26, 2018Tule Elk

Bull Elk, Point Reyes National Seashore

Photo of big tule elk bull. — 7-Point Bull, Tomales Peninsula

This photo was taken on February 22 near Pierce Point Ranch. The bull is sporting a pretty impressive 7-point rack. He won’t have those big antlers for long though. I saw one of the Limantour herd bulls with only one antler that day. It looks like antler-dropping season has begun. Last year I posted a photo of a bull on February 15 whose antlers were gone and new antler growth was already quite visible. To see that post click here.

Collecting antlers is illegal. That doesn’t stop people though. Antlers sold on the black market are worth a fair amount of money. The Park Service goes out and tries to keep ahead of the collectors. You may wonder what the Park Service does with the antlers. The answer is that it grinds them up and puts them back in the areas where they found them because they are an important source of calcium and other minerals for rodents and other wildlife. For a photo of an elk with a deer antler in its mouth click here.

It’s too bad people won’t just leave them where they’ve fallen, but they won’t. As long as people want animal parts (tusks, horns, paws, teeth, gall bladders etc.), and are willing to pay for them, there will be people who will hunt for those parts even if it means killing the animals (which it usually does). Unfortunately, this is the way it’s always been.

February 20, 2011Uncategorized

Killing Black Bears and Selling Their Gall Bladders

Photo of mother black bear. — Black Bear, Yellowstone National Park

Recently I wrote that the elk are dropping their antlers in Point Reyes National Seashore and the Park Service is busy picking up the antlers before the antler traders find them and remove them (which is illegal). I mentioned that while bad enough, at least the antler thieves don’t kill the elk for the body parts as happens with animals such as bears, tigers and elephants. The next day I opened my local paper to learn that someone in my city, which is located not more than 30 miles from San Francisco, was arrested while poaching a black bear in the Mendocino National Forest. More black bear parts, namely a head, five paws, a penis and gall bladder, were in his freezer at home. According to the article, black bear gall bladders sell for $5,000 on the black market. A bad as these killings are, the real problem is the demand by some in the Asian community for bear and tiger parts for their supposed value as aphrodisiacs. Tigers are nearing extinction due to this demand. I wonder if there has ever been any study to support or refute this belief.