We live in a 700 acre county park with cabins, a campground, lake, and a lodge (where Sarah & Craig and Joe & Lauren were married). We also have a wildlife exhibit with elk, buffalo and white tail deer.
When we moved to the park in September 1992, one of the first things I remember is hearing the elk bugling. I mean seriously….how many of you get to hear this wonderful sound from the peace and quiet of your back yard? If you have never heard it, here is a sample: http://soundbible.com/tags-bull-elk-bugle.html
The animals we have are domesticated and have never lived in the wild. Obviously at one time their ancestors were in the wild, but that was many many generations ago. They are used for education and are considered livestock. They are governmentally regulated to make sure that they do not get released back into the wild. Al has to have a game breeder’s license in order to keep them in the park and he works hard to make sure that they are healthy and well taken care of.
Of course every year the animals breed and you end up with higher numbers than you want. Al usually sells or trades them to other county parks in the state, but this fall we ended up with three bull elk in the pen: a 4 year old and two 2 year olds. This time of year, that doesn’t work so well, because at least one of them is not going to get along with the others.
As they were feeding Monday afternoon they noticed that one of the bulls had an injury, most likely caused by the 4 year old bull’s antlers. It’s intestines were poking out of a hole in his side.
The solution to prevent more of this is to cut off the antlers of the bulls. As Al said “if one gets hurt, everybody loses their antlers because you don’t know who did it”. If everything worked fine each year we would let them shed their antlers naturally late in the winter/early spring, but sometimes even when we only have one bull, we have to remove them anyway to make sure he doesn’t accidentally hurt one of the cows when he’s getting frisky.
So, how exactly do you go about getting their antlers off? Al’s a big guy, but not nearly big enough to go up to an 800 pound bull elk and ask him to sit so I can please cut your antlers off. I don’t think the bull would cooperate anyway.
But he’s a great shot with a tranquilizer gun, and it’s pretty easy once they are in la la land.
You wait for a few minutes to make sure they are out, and then take a saw and cut the antlers off. Pretty simple, huh?
They then darted the hurt one, and the vets came out and did a little pasture surgery on him and pushed everything back in (he got his antlers cut off as well).
I think the buffalo had to make sure that the vets were doing their job correctly. These are the same vets that have worked with these animals for the entire time we’ve been at the park. They’re pretty used to dealing with them and know just what to do.
They must have done it pretty good, because today the bull looks like he’s going to be fine.
