Pennsylvania Elk Rut Explodes

Mature Bull Herds Cows During Peak Of The Rut

I arrived in Pennsylvania Elk Country just as a northwest cold front was moving through on Sunday afternoon.  Elk enthusiasts who were there all last week said that activity was good earlier in the week, but crashed as the weather got warm later in the week.  With the passing of the cold front; however, activity exploded again and it was very intense for a few days.

I took mostly video for the first few days of the trip, but on Wednesday evening several bulls were working a herd of cows in ideal lighting conditions for still photography so  I broke out the Canon 5D MK III with the 600mm f4 lens and the 70D with the 300mm f 2.8 and took the photos used in today's post. At first only one bull was present, but soon more arrived on the scene.

Bull Runs Toward Action

One of the bulls has large, sweeping antlers and is called "The Western Bull" by many as  his antlers look more like those seen on bulls in the western states.  It seems that the antlers on most Pennsylvania bulls are more likely to be relatively narrow in relation to their width, while many of  western bull's racks tend to be long, thin, and sweeping in appearance.  This bull is very aggressive and one point on the right antler is broken off from fighting.

"The Western Bull" A Damaged Warrior

Bulls locked antlers at times during the evening and I got a few frames of the action, but there was always some high grass between me and them when this happened and the blurry, out of focus grass detracted from the quality of the photos.

Bulls Fighting

Most expected the activity to continue this morning (Thursday),but most of the elk left the meadows shortly after daylight and there was little bugling.  Later in the morning, a solitary bull was seen feeding and resting along Winslow Hill Road near Elk View Diner and he soon became the major attraction on  the hill.

Old Bull Along Winslow Hill Road

This is the bull that many elk enthusiasts call "Limpy" He is a mature bull that is showing the signs of advancing age.  He has been in the center of the fighting for much of the rut, but now it seems he has moved away from the herd for a time, to rest and avoid confrontation with the other bulls.  He was still there in mid-afternoon when I drove past as I headed out for the evening's photography session.

Originally published at Pennsylvania Wildlife Photographer by Willard Hill.

Bull Fight Ends In Death

Photographers enjoy the beauty of the natural world and strive to capture their subjects in beautiful, exciting poses, but unfortunately  some things in nature are not beautiful.  While I prefer to concentrate on the awesome beauty that can be found in the outdoors, it is good to document  some of the less pleasant  aspects of the outdoor experience so that the public is aware of the reality of life for animals in the wild.

The Beauty of Nature: Canon 70D-Canon 300mm f2.8-ISO 400-1/320 sec. f 3.2

As we pointed out in the last post, most who visit the elk hope to see an exciting bull fight, but they often do not consider the serious injury that can result to the participants.  A prime example of this was when the famous character bull "Fred, Jr." was gored in 2000.  I do not know if anyone got to see the fight in which he was injured, but I found him in the Winslow Hill back country one September morning in 2000 and was surprised to find that he had a large hole in one side.

Fred Gored-2000-Canon L2 Hi-8 Camcorder Video Still Capture

 I spent over an hour with the great animal as he stood on a hillside licking his wound.  After close observation it seemed likely that the wound had not penetrated vital organs and he had an excellent chance to recover.

Fred's Wound: Canon Elan II-Lens Unknown-35mm scan

 I was further reassured when he suddenly scented the air and then ran into a nearby hollow where I found him  pursuing a hot cow.  By the next autumn there was no sign of the injury and I had the privilege of recording him and the Test Hill bull in the fight that is featured in The Elk Country Visitor Center theater presentation and my film, "The Truth About Pennsylvania's Elk Herd.  A small portion of this fight is also included in my latest film, "Running Wild in Pennsylvania Elk Country".  Both films may be purchased at Benezett Store.

At least one fatality resulted from a bull fight on Winslow Hill this year.  To the best of my knowledge someone reported to the PGC that a bull was dead, but the officer who responded  could not find the animal and asked noted elk photographer Ron "Buckwheat" Saffer if he had seen it.  At this point Saffer had not, but he later found the animal and notified the PGC.

Goring Victim: Photo Courtesy of Ronald J. Saffer- Used by permission

The bull was in The Saddle Area.  If you look directly over the back end of the bull in the photo below you can see Dewey Road in the background and the large meadow to the side of the road where the fight took place that was featured in the short video I posted recently.

Goring Victim: Photo Courtesy of Ronald J. Saffer- Used by permission

Soon Wildlife Conservation Officer Doty McDowell arrived and removed the animal.

WCO Doty McDowell Arrives: Photo Courtesy of Ronald J. Saffer- Used by permission

WCO Doty McDowell Removing Elk: Photo Courtesy of Ronald J. Saffer- Used by permission

According to Buckwheat this was not a particularly distinctive bull. Although it had a beautiful 6x6 rack, it was still a young animal albeit one with excellent  potential to grow into an exception bull had this not happened. It is not one that stood out above the rest of the herd for any particular reason and so would not be a "character" bull that was known to a lot of photographers and elk watchers.

The first question someone usually asks is what did they do with the elk?  I have not corresponded with WCO McDowell about this, but based on my past experience as a PGC Deputy and Maintenance worker I would expect that the elk would be not fit for human consumption. It is possible that the hide was saved and extremely likely that the antlers were salvaged and will end up being exhibited in an information/education display at some point.

Deaths from fighting are not an every day occurrence during the rut, but they are not rare either and it seems that one usually hears of one or more bulls dying each year from injuries received in a fight.

I wish to extend special thanks to Ron "Buckwheat "Saffer  for sharing his photos of the incident with us.

Originally published at Pennsylvania Wildlife Photographer by Willard Hill.

Pennsylvania Bull Elk Fight-2013 Rut

Where The Fight Took Place: Canon 70D-Canon 70-200mm@ 200mm  f2.8 IS II-ISO 200 1/250 sec. f 5.0

Today's post features a 4min. 18 sec.video, "Pennsylvania Elk Rut 2013", which is some of the better shots from my recent two week trip to elk country.  The clips were taken entirely with the Canon 70D and the Panasonic GH3.  The video is based around a dominance fight that I filmed during my first week there.  Here is the story of the fight.

It was warm in the afternoon of Wednesday September 18th when I arrived at the Porcupine Run-Winslow Hill viewing area with the thought in mind that even though it was too early and too warm to have much chance of seeing elk that one couldn't see elk if they were indoors.  Another factor to consider was that it was good to get an early start and take it easy walking into the back country to a good vantage point and wait for activity to start.

Just before 3:30 pm. I found fellow photographer Charlie Cropp at the upper Gilbert Farm food plot and stopped to talk to him.  In short order wildlife artist and photographer David Anderson also stopped by.  I told both of them that there was little chance of seeing anything right now as elk are best seen in early morning and late afternoon and filled them in on my strategy for the evening.  Shortly thereafter one of them pointed out a few cow elk at the edge of the food plot.I still didn't expect anything noteworthy to happen, but then more and more cows spilled into the field and a bull bugled down over the hill out of sight of the field.  At this point we frantically set up cameras and tripods and I began filming as beautiful 6x6 followed the cows into the meadow.   At 3:33 a 6x7 wearing a brown radio collar came out of the woods, charged down the hill and locked antlers with the 6x6.  In all I filmed 7 minutes and 25 seconds of footage counting from when I started the camera running on the 6x7 running down the hill to fight the 6x6.  I paused the camera a few times during the encounter to change some settings, but these pauses were very brief so it is doubtful that the entire encounter lasted 8 minutes. I filmed 5 minutes 18 sec. of actual antler contact, which of course would be a bit longer also, but it is likely there was no more than 6 minutes of  contact.  At the end the 6x6 broke contact with the collared 6x7  and fled from him.

After The Fight: Canon 5D MK III-Canon 500mm f4 IS-ISO 100 1/500 sec. f 5.0

What is amazing is that the  bull that "lost" the fight went back to chasing the cows as though nothing happened. One concentrates on filming what is before them so I am not sure, but it is my impression that the "victor" continued to chase cows in the area, but not in a position that I could photograph and film him.  It could be that although he made the 6x6 give way, it was such a traumatic experience for him that he wanted no more of fighting for the day.  Also it is likely I would not have recorded the victor because of the brown collar, when a more photogenic bull was right in front of me.

At this point I will not comment on what camera took specific scenes in the video. Hopefully that will be a post for another day.  It is generally accepted that the GH3 is better for video than the Canon DSLRs excepting for the 5D MK III.  The truth is their is a lot more to this than just which camera can record the better image. To have a meaningful comparison the shots must be under tightly controlled conditions and often the clips that are posted to prove one cameras' superiority do not meet that standard.  These clips were of course not taken under controlled conditions, but rather in situations where you were trying to make the best of a less than ideal situation.  For example, there was plenty of light to film the fight, but it was very harsh and glaring.  At one point I was zoomed in very close on the bulls and mirage (heat waves) are very visible on a large screen HDTV, but does one avoid this type of dramatic shot, just to avoid the heat waves.  Fortunately  most of the shots did not have a problem with this, but it would have been much better in early morning or late evening light. 

In another case you will note two bulls that never quite come to combat, but rather touch antlers a few times.  This was taken at 7:44 in the evening at ISO 3200 and 1/30 sec. f2.8, which is nearly dark at that time of year..  Ideally one would use both cameras with the same or similar lens in this situation and compare the quality. These two clips do look a bit heavy and dark, but that is on purpose because that is what it looked like to be there.  It looks perfectly acceptable to me on an HDTV, but it may not to you.

Originally published at Pennsylvania Wildlife Photographer by Willard Hill.
 

Bull Elk Fight On Winslow Hill: filmed by David Anderson

I have been filming and photographing the Pennsylvania elk herd since 1995. From 1995 until 2006 my filming was done with a variety of SD (standard-definition) camcorders. This included large shoulder mount VHS and S/VHS camcorders, compact Hi-8, Digital 8, and min-DV units. The most impressive of these were the Canon L2 Hi-8 camcorder, and the Canon XL-1s mini-dv camcorder.  Both of these units accepted the full line of Canon EOS lenses and were capable of delivering professional results at long range.

Times change however, and HD (high definition) widescreen video began making serious inroads in 2005.  I bought a Sony HVR-A1u HDV camcorder in 2006, and realized that one had to go completely HD to have any hope of competing in the near future so I procured a Canon XL-h1 HD camcorder in Januray 2007.  One of the major problems was that much of the wildlife behavior I had captured on SD was hard to obtain and it was going to be very difficult to capture equivalent HD footage in a reasonable time frame.

I had captured several bull fights with the Canon L2, which were included in the film "The Truth About Pennsylvania's Elk Herd",which was released in 2008. One of these fights, which was between the famous character bull Fred ( a.k.a. Bull 36) and a large 6x6, was selected as the fight sequence for the Elk Country Visitor Center theater presentation.

I have been working since 2008 on a sequel to this film, but in all of that time I have been able to only capture short snippets of fights except in one case I did capture a fairly lengthy fight between two collared bulls, but I did not want to use this as the featured fight in a new film, as it was shot under less than ideal conditions.

Fast forward to 2011 and again I captured only a few brief encounters that really didn't qualify as fights, but this time I was in luck as fellow elk photographers and videographers, David Anderson and John Koshinski came to the rescue with dramatic fight footage.

Today we feature a short clip of about one minute in length that is taken from the new film, which will likely be known as "Pennsylvania Elk Country".



David Anderson, a talented wildlife artist and photographer from West Newton, Pennsylvania filmed this with a Canon 7D and a 300mm F4 L lens and did an excellent job of following the motion.  The fight is shortened considerably for inclusion in the film, but the most important moments are shown.  This fight is between an aggressive 5x5 and a medium-sized collared bull.

Aside from dramatic action and the fine camera work, this clip is notable because it was taken with a DSLR--something that could not have been done just a few short years ago.  It was the inclusion of the ability to record widescreen HD video on the Canon 7D that caused me to be among the first purchasers of this camera.

Look for "Pennsylvania Elk Country" to be released sometime in the third quarter of 2012, although the date of release name of the film, and content of sample clips is subject to change.

Originally published at Pennsylvania Wildlife Photographer by Willard Hill.

Fred-Bull 36 Appears In Elk Country Visitor Center Theater Production

Mid afternoon, September 27, 2010 and an old bull elk lies dozing in the woods close by to the Pennsylvania Elk Country Visitor Center near Benezette.  Tourists stop by and snap a few photographs of him as he rests.  This is none other than the famous bull 36 also known as "Fred" or "Dogrope".  Many know him, but few are aware as they gaze at him that this is the same bull that they just saw in the Visitor Center theater presentation, defeating a larger bull in an extended fight that lasted about ten minutes.

Bull 36 "Fred" Resting At Visitor Center

One cannot help but think as the gaze at him if somewhere in the recesses of his memory he recalls a day many years ago, when he was the king of Winslow Hill and he met the mighty Test Hill Bull in combat for control of a harem of cows in the backcountry.  At this time he was not yet known as the Benezette town bull and he would not become bull 36 until he was collared in late 2003 or 2004.

It was just one day and 23 minutes shy of the 9th anniversary of this fight that my brother Coy and I found him resting at the Visitor Center and it brought back a lot of memories to see him there.

Mid-afternoon on September 28, 2001 found me trudging into the backcountry on Winslow Hill.  There was periodic showers and fog that morning, but the elk had really been active with a lot of rutting activity in the saddle area.  This was to be the last year that I carried the Canon L2 camcorder and it was having problems that were exacerbated by the damp weather.  I used a Canon 35-350mmL lens for medium to long distance filming, which required a battery powered adapter between it and the camcorder body and this refused to work on occasion, but one could get it back in action by removing the battery, wiping contact point, etc.  This would figure largely in the events that were about to unfold.  Fred was in this area with a large harem of cows much of that week and true to form, he was there on this day.

Fred In Saddle With Cows September 28, 2001

I was walking the road that followed the tree line along the top of the saddle and had reached a spot where one could see the large meadow in the lower part of the saddle (elk watching veterans will recall the log that was in this spot where the Game Commission would stop and give talks to tour groups).

Scene Of Fight: Taken The Morning Of The Day Of The Fight

Suddenly there was an ear-piercing bugle as a monstrous 6x6 emerged from the State Forestry Land at the high part of the saddle and roared forth a challenge.  I powered the camera up and the adapter immediately died.  I went ahead and filmed the bull at this point which resulted in underexposed footage(it does not look the best but could be manipulated with video editing software to the point that it could be used) .

The Test Hill Bull In The Saddle On The Morning Of The Day Of The Fight

At this point in time the bull was over 200 yards away from Fred and the harem but he started running toward them and I began working frantically with the adapter.  To my immense relief it started working again and I had it back in action before the fight began.  At first the animals circled for a short time, and then locked antlers briefly.  Soon this turned into sustained combat that continued until the larger animal broke contact and walked away.

I used this footage in "The Truth About Pennsylvania"s Elk Herd", which I released in 2008.


Showdown In The Saddle from Willard C. Hill on Vimeo.

I was pleasantly surprised when Magic Lantern, the company that produced the theater presentation and other multi-media displays, for the Elk Country Visitors Center selected this footage as the fight sequence for the theater presentation. (Please note they re-edited the sequence ) Video technology has advanced at an amazing rate since 2001.  Today some flavor of HD is preferred with the field moving toward even higher resolutions.  This footage was shot on Hi-8 tape, which was one of the favored video formats for the independent producer during the mid-1990s.  This was replaced by mini-dv in the later 1990s.  To make a long story short , I would give a lot to have been able to shoot the exact same thing in high definition, but even though I have used HD since 2006, I have not been able to capture a serious fight from beginning to end. I have recorded brief periods of antler contact  and a somewhat lengthy fight between bull 8A and Bull 62, but in this case the fighting was not as serious as that in the showdown in the saddle, and the appeal of the footage was reduced by both elk being collared, and elk viewing area signs in the background.

In this case, even though the format was outdated, the footage told the story of a fight from beginning to end, and it was shot from a tripod with no camera jiggle or bounce to disturb the viewer and these considerations outweighed the negative considerations.  Of course the fight does not last ten minutes in the theater presentation, in fact the entire presentation is less than thirty minutes.  It is edited to tell a story, and the people at Magic Lantern succeeded in telling the story very well.

The Canon L2 In Action: Pennsylvania Elk Fighting

I had no idea of trying to post a video clip today, but the desire to experiment surfaced, and I thought what better way to demonstrate what the Canon L2 was capable of than to show a fight between two monster bulls, which occurred during the rut in 1997.

The video lasts slightly over 37 seconds. I have found that Firefox requires one to download a flash player plug-in, which is a relatively painless procedure. It worked well in Firefox, but wouldn't display in IE7 so I did the entire post over. Then I found I had to download an update to the flash player plug-in that Firefox installed.

It's working for me now, but I don't guarantee anything! It starts with a fade from black and ends in that too.

I have recorded two fights in twelve years of videotaping elk. They “spar” quite frequently, which can be likened to arm wrestling among humans, but actual combat can be intense and sometimes results in death to one or both of the animals. This is most of the first fight I witnessed, with a bit edited from the center. The other lasted about ten minutes.

One Bull has a unique deformed rack. He was named, “Crazy Legs” by Dr. Perk. I asked him, why? He replied, “Because he likes to travel”. Unfortunately he traveled too much and was killed much later by poachers some distance away from Winslow Hill.

As best as I can tell the other bull was killed in the first elk season in 2001.
If I remember correctly this was taken with the normal lens and 2x extender.