The rut is on in Yellowstone National Park, which means “the King of Mammoth” has returned for another year of bugling and bucking at passing vehicles.
That “king” is Elk 24, a bull elk that’s held court at Mammoth Hot Springs for several years. Hundreds of bull elk compete for harems in Yellowstone in the fall, but Mammoth belongs to Elk 24.
Millions of people have seen Elk 24, even if they didn’t know it. If anyone’s seen a video of an elk jousting with a vehicle in Mammoth in the last few years, that was probably Elk 24.
“I would say he’s the most famous elk in Yellowstone and he’s quite a character,” said wildlife photographer Scott Brovsky from Gardiner, Montana.
Elk 24, named for the number on his ear tag, has been a regular sight at Mammoth Hot Springs for at least six years. According to Brovsky, he’s usually the only bull elk in the area.
“He’s been bringing his harem to Mammoth every year during the rut,” he said. “He’s always in Mammoth with his harem in September. It’s an interesting behavior.”
Master Of Mammoth
When other bulls are nearby, they’re usually overlooking Mammoth from a nearby ridge. Nobody’s more aware of their presence than Elk 24.
Brovsky recalled an instance when three bull elk were on a ridge overlooking Mammoth. He watched as Elk 24 actively asserted his dominance from below.
“He would bugle, and when he could hear them bugling, he was running around defending his harem,” he said. “I don't want to anthropomorphize him too much, because I'm obviously not an elk biologist, but it’s like he’s intelligent enough to know he’s less likely to be challenged there.”
That’s not to say Elk 24 doesn’t accept or instigate challenges. He does it all the time.
An extended battle with another bull elk captured on video and posted earlier this year by Yellowstone Tours, Elk 24 is especially aggressive. The narrator of the video marvels multiple times about Elk 24's savvy, and how the bulls took their fight into traffic.
Then he gets excited when Elk 24 finally chases the other bull off: "24 just won that!"
A Few Pitchforks
Because other bull elk seem to avoid Mammoth, Elk 24 is usually ready to pick fights with anything and anybody in the area.
April Mead, another wildlife photographer based in Gardiner, has been keeping tabs on Elk 24 since he first showed up at Mammoth. She’s frequently seen sizing up vehicles, to the point where drivers are encouraged to keep moving, lest they be charged.
She called these encounters “occasional pitchforks.” The large bull is actually challenging and trying to fight himself.
“What he’s doing is seeing and going after his own reflection in the cars,” she said.
Yellowstone has several videos of Elk 24 doing just that on its website.
In one incident, Elk 24 squared up to a black SUV in a parking space. A ranger told traffic to keep moving while telling the SUV’s driver they “need to move,” while the bull kept bucking at their bumper.
“You could hear a ranger over an audio system saying, ‘Do not stop. He will charge your car,’” Brovsky said.
During another incident, Elk 24 sprinted into the road to chase off an isolated white Hyundai.
If anyone riding in a shiny vehicle stops for a photo of an up-close encounter, Elk 24 will rush over to chase them and himself away.
“I posted a video recently where I'm sitting in my car, and somebody else got out of their car when Elk 24 was right there,” she said. “His ladies were five feet in front of this person, and a park ranger ended up coming in speaking to them.”
Visitors tend to underestimate the speed and power of elk, especially during the rut, when bulls surge with hormones and energy. One of Mead’s first viral videos was of two elk, one of which might have been Elk 24, forming an alliance to joust with a Chevy.
“It was a brand-new truck, and two really big bulls going after it,” she said. “One went at it from the front, and one went at it from the side. I have a friend who was driving up through Mammoth a couple of years ago and had a bull elk literally jump onto her car.”
Imperial Elk
Nobody knows exactly how big Elk 24 is. Even by bull elk standards, he’s big.
“He was a 7x6 last year, but everyone's thinking he's actually a 7x7 this year,” Brovsky said. “That means he’s getting bigger.”
The numbers refer to the antler points on each of Elk 24’s antlers. This year, he has 14 points between the two, indicating he’s a big, healthy bull.
Hunters and photographers tend to refer to 7x7 bulls as an “Imperial Elk.” That would put Elk 24 into the upper echelon of Yellowstone’s elk, though not quite as high as an 8x8 “Monarch Elk.”
This year, Elk 24 seems to have crossed the threshold to a level of invulnerability. As far as Mead and others know, he hasn’t had any challengers this season.
“He's pretty much won the game already,” Mead said. “You’ve had different elk trying to come and challenge him, and a lot of visitors, in the past. I don't know that he's really going to be fighting this year. He’s huge.”
Elk 24 is considered one of the two most-famous bull elk ever to preside over Mammoth. His reputation is matched or surpassed only by Elk 6, a giant bull so aggressive rangers removed his antlers in the autumn of both 2004 and 2005 to keep gawkers safe.
Elk 6 died in 2009 at age 15 after somersaulting onto his back and suffocating after trying to cross a fence north of Gardiner. His rack is on display at the Mammoth Visitor Center.
Famous And Dangerous
If someone’s taken a photo of a majestic bull elk in or around Mammoth, or heard an unmistakable bugle in the area, they’ve probably experienced Elk 24. He isn’t the only bull in the area, but he’s easily the most visible.
Brovsky and Mead have to work hard to find Elk 24. If he’s not in Mammoth for the rut, he’s usually nearby.
“We see him pretty much year-round,” Brovsky said. “We’ve seen him a lot farther from Mammoth, around Blacktail Ponds and Lava Creek, but he’s never far away.”
Even when he’s far from Mammoth, he’s never far from people.
During the rut, Yellowstone visitors might be lucky enough to see bull elk from a considerable distance, a mile or more, through binoculars or spotting scopes.
Elk 24, meanwhile, is always “right there,” according to Brovsky.
Because he’s undaunted by the proximity of people and vehicles, Elk 24 tends to hang out in areas where he’s easily seen and recognized.
“People are excited to see him because they might not see another bull elk that close,” Brovsky said. “We definitely want to maintain the proper distances with all the animals, but Elk 24 is somewhat famous because he’s always right there at Mammoth.”
That makes him a source of constant concern at Mammoth.
Elk 24 might be the imperial bull, but rangers constantly monitor him as he roams the heavily populated area. He keeps the rangers stationed at Mammoth on their toes, especially during the rut, to ensure everyone stays safe.
Often, rangers arrange and re-arrange orange traffic cones in Mammoth to keep visitors a safe distance from Elk 24 and his harem.
“He creates quite a situation for the National Park Service,” Mead said. “The park rangers do a really good job of triangulating Mammoth and trying to make sure that they understand where he and the other males are.”
Knowing where other bulls are is important, because Elk 24 certainly knows. Like any bull elk, he’ll immediately respond to any potential threat to his harem, which makes him dangerous.
“If they think there's another male, an elk can run just like a bison, and they will run all the way across Mammoth,” Mead said. “I’ve seen them do it. People may not realize the danger they're putting themselves in when they get close to elk, especially during the rut.”
Long Live The King
The fall elk rut is in full swing until mid- to late October. That gives plenty of time to observe Elk 24’s antics at Mammoth.
Mead noted that most of Elk 24’s previous challengers have been “spicy young” bulls who quickly capitulated. So far this year, not even those young upstarts have shown up.
For the moment, Elk 24’s size and hypervigilance seem to have secured his power in Mammoth.
“I haven't seen him fight this year, and I don’t know of anyone who has,” Mead said. “At some point, somebody's going to overtake him, but I don't think it's going to be this year. He might just be getting the ladies without much of a fight.”
Andrew Rossi can be reached at arossi@cowboystatedaily.com.
