A Montana outdoorsman said that finding a helpless elk calf — likely the target of a mountain lion attack — tugged at his heart so much he couldn’t help but take it home to try to save it.
Sadly, the male calf died early the next morning, said Carl Strachan, a hunter and rancher who lives near Livingston, Montana.
After a lifetime spent in the outdoors, Strachan told Cowboy State Daily on Friday that he’s aware of how cruel nature can be, and how it’s usually best to let it take its course. But seeing the male elk calf in such a sorry state near the roadside got the better of him.
“I don’t know what I was thinking, I felt sorry for the little thing,” he said.
Lots Of Lions
Hunters, ranchers and others have reported booming mountain lion populations across Wyoming. Strachan said it’s the same situation in his corner of Montana.
In recent years, he’s seen more mountain lions and signs of mountain lion activity than ever before.
The ranch loses about a dozen sheep to mountain lions every summer, he said.
Although Strachan doesn’t own hunting hounds, he has a friend who does. So when they can, they take the hounds out to hunt mountain lions or at least chase them away.
As Strachan sees it, the mountain lions are thriving because their main prey base — big game animals such as elk — are also thriving.
Nature moves in cycles, so the day will likely come when the population of both prey and predators will take a downturn. But for now, things are incredibly busy around his place, he said.
Elk, Big Cat Spotted
He wasn’t surprised when he was out driving along a road a short way from his cabin on the ranch about two weeks ago and spotted a small group of elk.
At first, he saw two cow elk and a yearling calf, which fled at his approach.
He saw another cow elk “just sort of standing there.”
Then things got interesting.
“Right there, about 10 yards off the road, there’s this cat (mountain lion) running away,” he said.
“I drove back and forth and honked the horn a bit, to run that cat away,” he said.
He noticed a young elk calf curled up in the grass, apparently the offspring of the cow elk that refused to budge.
At that time, the calf looked to be OK, so he took a photo of it and drove away.
‘It Was Hurt Really Badly’
The next day, the calf was still there, and its mother was nowhere in sight.
“It was sprawled out, laying there, like it was hurt really badly,” Strachan said.
“It was laying in the sun, and it was going to be in the sun all day,” he said.
That’s when he decided it was time to intervene, if only just a little.
He figured that the calf’s mother was still somewhere nearby. So, he gently moved the calf into the shade of a juniper bush and left to go work on some of the ranch’s fences.
He returned several hours later, only to find the calf still there and suffering, and its mother still gone.
The sad sight was more than he could take.
“I just picked that little bull up and tried to give him some water,” and then decided to take it home, he said.
Rough Night
Strachan took the calf into his cabin. The young elk stayed remarkably calm but obviously had something wrong with it.
“It kept trying to get up after I gave it some water,” but it couldn’t, he said.
“It was still moving its back legs, but they were constantly strained,” he said.
The calf didn’t have any visible external wound, but Strachan worried that it had massive internal damage – possibly including broken bones or damage to its spinal cord.
He surmised that the mountain lion had latched onto it and crushed it.
Or perhaps, its mother, while attempting to pummel the mountain lion with her hooves, had accidentally stomped her calf.
Strachan tried to sleep but kept getting up to check on the calf.
He dozed off around 3 a.m., and woke up at about 5:30 a.m.
“I went to check on the calf, and he had passed away,” he said.
Rancher and outdoorsman Carl Strachan said that the number of mountain lions around his property near Livingston, Montana has increased dramatically in recent years. (Courtesy Carl Strachan) 
Rancher and outdoorsman Carl Strachan took this elk calf into his home near Livingston, Montana, trying to nurse it back to health after it survived an apparent mountain lion attack. The calf died, but Strachan said he doesn’t regret trying to help. (Courtesy Carl Strachan) 
Rancher and outdoorsman Carl Strachan took this elk calf into his home near Livingston, Montana, trying to nurse it back to health after it survived an apparent mountain lion attack. The calf died, but Strachan said he doesn’t regret trying to help. (Courtesy Carl Strachan)
It Was Worth A Try
Though his story about the elk calf has a sad ending, Strachan said he doesn’t regret trying to help the young animal.
“Yes, this story is a sad, but very realistic representation of how harsh the wild is for animals, especially the weak,” he said.
He knew from the moment he scooped the calf up the odds were slim that it would survive, much less be able to return to the wild – but it was worth an attempt.
“The possibility of it surviving was there. If I could get it back up and get it moving. I know cow elk will adopt other cow’s calves,” he said.
Wild mothers are known to sometimes adopt stray young.
In 2024 a female grizzly appeared with an unprecedented five cubs in Yellowstone National Park, and experts surmised that she had probably adopted some of the cubs.
Reflecting on the incident with the elk calf, Strachan said that while nature will always do what it does, there are times when people might decide to step in.
“Farmers, ranchers, and true outdoorsman know this love for the animals,” he said.
Mark Heinz can be reached at mark@cowboystatedaily.com.
