{"id":9102,"date":"2013-11-22T11:46:15","date_gmt":"2013-11-22T19:46:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.kootenay-lake.ca\/?p=9102"},"modified":"2013-11-22T11:46:15","modified_gmt":"2013-11-22T19:46:15","slug":"elk-date-preparation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.kootenay-lake.ca\/?p=9102","title":{"rendered":"Elk date preparation"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Elks like to wallow in mud. Why they do this seems to change with the season. In the summer, a coating of mud probably cools the animal and protects it from insects. But, why should an elk wallow in the fall? The answer is given by a <a href=\"http:\/\/wdfw.wa.gov\/living\/elk.html\" target=\"_blank\">Washington State website<\/a>:\u00a0<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\">Probably the most easily identified elk sign is the mud wallow scented with urine and droppings. Bull elk roll in wallows to cover their bodies with scent, creating bathtub-size depressions with low walls of displaced mud ringing their perimeters. Receptive cow elk, drawn by the odor, will also roll and urinate in the wallow, indicating their willingness to mate. Elk that use these wallows may become so foul smelling that, when downwind, humans can easily detect their presence.<\/p>\n<p>Doug Thorburn mounted a motion-activated infrared camera beside a local elk wallow and then waited. Finally, a bull elk visited and produced the sequence, below.<\/p>\n<p>A bull elk with seven tines on each antler (an imperial bull) triggers the camera.<br \/><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone  wp-image-9108\" onclick=\"return false\" onmousedown=\"return false\" alt=\"\" src=\"https:\/\/blog.kootenay-lake.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/11\/elk130900asDT.jpg\" width=\"720\" height=\"480\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Turning to enter the wallow, he calls, a frequent activity during rutting season.<br \/><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone  wp-image-9107\" onclick=\"return false\" onmousedown=\"return false\" alt=\"\" src=\"https:\/\/blog.kootenay-lake.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/11\/elk130900bsDT.jpg\" width=\"720\" height=\"480\" \/>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>It seems that just before entering the wallow, the elk bumped the camera, which is now tipped.<br \/><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone wp-image-9106\" onclick=\"return false\" onmousedown=\"return false\" alt=\"\" src=\"https:\/\/blog.kootenay-lake.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/11\/elk130900csDT.jpg\" width=\"720\" height=\"480\" \/><\/p>\n<p>The time has come for a good soak in that lovely aromatic mud.<br \/><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone  wp-image-9105\" onclick=\"return false\" onmousedown=\"return false\" alt=\"\" src=\"https:\/\/blog.kootenay-lake.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/11\/elk130900dsDT.jpg\" width=\"720\" height=\"480\" \/><\/p>\n<p>His underside now coated with&#8230;er&#8230;<em>eau de toilette<\/em>, he departs on a date. We wish him every success.<br \/><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone  wp-image-9104\" onclick=\"return false\" onmousedown=\"return false\" alt=\"\" src=\"https:\/\/blog.kootenay-lake.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/11\/elk130900esDT.jpg\" width=\"720\" height=\"480\" \/><br \/><span style=\"font-size: x-small;\">Doug Thorburn&#8217;s pictures are used with permission.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&nbsp; Elks like to wallow in mud. Why they do this seems to change with the season. In the summer, a coating of mud probably cools the animal and protects it from insects. But, why should an elk wallow in &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/blog.kootenay-lake.ca\/?p=9102\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9102","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-mammals"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.kootenay-lake.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9102","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.kootenay-lake.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.kootenay-lake.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.kootenay-lake.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.kootenay-lake.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=9102"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/blog.kootenay-lake.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9102\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9113,"href":"https:\/\/blog.kootenay-lake.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9102\/revisions\/9113"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.kootenay-lake.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=9102"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.kootenay-lake.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=9102"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.kootenay-lake.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=9102"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}