Tag: cow elk

Tule Elk

Tule Elk Calf, Point Reyes National Seashore

Photo of tule elk calf.
One of Many Tule Elk Calves, Pierce Point Ranch

At the end of my most recent day out at Point Reyes I did what I usually do, which is to drive out the Tomales Peninsula to the Pierce Point Ranch area to photograph the elk that move to the east side of the road in the last light before sunset.  It’s great that they do that because you can use your car as a blind and be fairly close to them.   That they cross the road then is crucial so you don’t have to shoot into the sun.

Luckily, the cow elk do this most of the time about an hour before sunset.  They were right on schedule that day.   There were about 50 cows and yearlings and another 20 to 30 calves.  I don’t recall nearly as many calves there last year.   If you want to photograph elk calves this is a good time to do it there.

Rocky Mountain Elk

Nervous Cow Elk, Yellowstone National Park

Photo of a cow elk.
“Nervous Nellie”

As I was driving from Mammoth to Tower shortly after sunrise one morning I spotted this lone cow elk looking at me.  She seemed very nervous.  She looks like she may be pregnant and I assume she was close to giving birth.  When cow elk are close to giving birth they go off by themselves for the birthing.    The calf is kept hidden for about a week.  The cow moves her calf (or calves) several times a day during that seven days and they stay motionless until their mom comes back to feed and move them.  Even so, predators find a lot of them.

The lighting was very bad for this photo.  You can see from the rim lighting around the elk’s body that the sun was coming from behind it.  The number one rule in outdoor photography is keep the sun at your back.  Well, you can’t always follow the rules in wildlife photography.  Elk aren’t models you can move around.  I did what I could at the time which was to compensate some by overexposing a bit and then compensated some more in Photoshop.  In the film days one could do, or attempt to do, the same thing in printing by dodging and burning, but the methods then were somewhat crude compared to what Photoshop allows one to do to mitigate exposure problems.   In this case I used the adjustment brush in Adobe Camera Raw to lighten the face and neck and then further refined the lighting/exposure using Shadows/Highlights and Curves.

Photo of underexposed elk.
Backlit Cow Elk

Here is what the image would have looked like, but for the adjustments described above in camera and Photoshop.  (The other difference from the top image is that I didn’t bother to crop this image.)

Tule Elk

Spring at Point Reyes National Seashore

It's Spring!
Tule Elk Cow in Mid-April

I was out at Point Reyes a couple of days ago.  Everything is nice and green. It’s been that way for a while, but recent heavy rains will ensure that things stay that way for a while longer.  This cow elk looks to be in good health.  She has shed most of her light gray winter coat and is now mostly showing her darker, reddish summer coat.  I saw one cow which seemed to be suffering from some health problem involving her digestive tract.  I’ve seen other elk with the same apparent problem.  I assume it’s Johne’s disease which causes severe diarrhea, usually (always?) resulting in death.  The disease has been a problem for the Point Reyes elk since the early days of their reintroduction to the Tomales Peninsula.  Virtually all ruminants, including the deer, cattle and goats in the Seashore,  are susceptible to the disease.  Johne’s disease occurs throughout the world.  For more information click here.

Photo of bull tule elk in velvet.
Tule Elk Bull in Velvet

The bulls are sporting new antlers.  This bull is part of the Tomales herd.  The Limantour herd seems to start new antler growth earlier than the Tomales herd.  In fact, it seems to start everything earlier than the Tomales herd.  I’ve heard elk calving has started and I’d bet that it started with the Limantour herd.  Newborn are kept hidden by their mothers for a while after birth, but the early-birth ones should start appearing with their mothers soon if they haven’t already.

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Cow Elk Being Groomed by Starlings; Point Reyes National Seashore

Photo of starlings grooming a cow elk.
Free Grooming

This cow is being cleaned of parasites by some starlings.  She’s also ear-tagged.  She has a yellow tag in her right ear that is numbered “85” and a silver tag in her left ear that is numbered “8527.”  I don’t know why the tags were put on her, but she may have been tagged when the Park Service was experimenting with birth control in the late 90s.  If so, she’s quite old.  All I do know for sure is that I see her a lot and she sees me a lot.  When I’m upwind of her that nose gets a real workout.

It’s hard to tell from this little jpeg, but it appears that the starling on the cow’s head is missing toes on its right foot.

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Ear-Tagged Elk

This cow elk has been ear-tagged.
Tule Elk, Point Reyes National Seashore

Here is an ear-tagged cow elk.  She is one of almost 500 elk at the Tule Elk Preserve at Tomales Point.  There is an identifying number on her right ear tag.  The other tag was inserted in the opposite direction.  I don’t know for sure why that was done, but I’m assuming it has the same identifying number and was inserted that way so the identifying number would be visible from the rear of the animal.  This herd has not increased in size for some time and therefore seems to be self-regulating.  The other herd, the Limantour Herd, numbers about 100 animals.