TITLE: Bugling Elk in a Snow storm

DESCRIPTION: I traveled to Wyoming one autumn to film a segment for the ABC-TV show, Those Amazing Animals. Our subject was the annual bugling ritual of the elk. The bull elk starts buglingÑnot honking or trumpetingÑwhen the frost comes to the high plateau of Yellowstone. Their call sounds a bit like an oboe, and is easily one of the most haunting sounds in nature. The male bugles, and the females within earshot come running in sexual anticipation. If another bull starts bugling, the females leave the first bull and go off to join the new singer. The first elk makes a gallant effort to stall the females by throwing his body between them and the challenger. As the day wears on, a harem of females congregates, dashing between several bulls every time one of them bugles. As the bulls are drawn closer, and come within sight of one another, some of them recognize they can not win this competition, perhaps recognizing that their bugle does not hold a candle to others, or that their elk fragrance is less pronounced, their rack of antlers less expansive. Eventually, only two bulls remain. They face one another while the females mill about, exhausted from the constant running back and forth. The joust begins. But these bulls do not smack their skulls together like sheep or goats. Rather, they lower their heads and push like sumo wrestlers trying to expel a competitor from the ring. They do not draw much blood. The main danger is the threat of locking antlers. If that happens, the two must work together to extricate themselves from their Chinese puzzle of points and branches. Otherwise, both will die of starvation.(From The Man Who Talks to Whales [Sentient])