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Yesterday in Colorado two bull elk (mature males) were found entangled with each other due to barbed wire which was wrapped around their antlers. This is rutting season, and males are battling one another for dominance and females. In this case it seems some stray barbed wire became entangled in their antlers and essentially tied the two animals together at the head.
This all happened just off the road I take to work every day.
Fortunately, several ranchers found the animals and were able to cut the barbed wire off. (No, that's not me in the black cowboy hat below, but I wish it had been!) The two elk, upon being freed, ran off into the mountains apparently unharmed.
Oh and by the way, that beautiful golden meadow where this happened is slated for development. It's home to elk, mule deer (yesterday I saw a mule deer with a huge rack lying in the grass there), coyote, prairie dog, fox, hawk, rabbit and innumerable other creatures, but some developer is chomping at the bit to turn it all into a quick buck (for himself.) Yep, it's been sold to the highest bidder, which means a developer. It will be paved and covered with cookie cutter houses and strip malls. There's a huge sign erected by the developer in front if it right now proudly displaying the fact, and doubtless there are Americans who just can't wait for this "useless" meadow to be turned into more cheap shopping opportunities (because God knows Americans just don't have enough cheap places to buy crap!) After all, that toxic MADE IN CHINA stuff isn't going to buy itself! Who cares about good 'ol American wilderness and the spectacle of nature's ancient rituals? We need more plastic garbage and cardboard houses!
This whole thing just makes me glow incandescent with rage. Not only can elk not breed without being tied up in our junk wire, but soon the very meadows where they've been breeding for longer than humans have even existed will be strip malls and tract houses. Is nothing sacred anymore?
This all happened just off the road I take to work every day.
Fortunately, several ranchers found the animals and were able to cut the barbed wire off. (No, that's not me in the black cowboy hat below, but I wish it had been!) The two elk, upon being freed, ran off into the mountains apparently unharmed.
Oh and by the way, that beautiful golden meadow where this happened is slated for development. It's home to elk, mule deer (yesterday I saw a mule deer with a huge rack lying in the grass there), coyote, prairie dog, fox, hawk, rabbit and innumerable other creatures, but some developer is chomping at the bit to turn it all into a quick buck (for himself.) Yep, it's been sold to the highest bidder, which means a developer. It will be paved and covered with cookie cutter houses and strip malls. There's a huge sign erected by the developer in front if it right now proudly displaying the fact, and doubtless there are Americans who just can't wait for this "useless" meadow to be turned into more cheap shopping opportunities (because God knows Americans just don't have enough cheap places to buy crap!) After all, that toxic MADE IN CHINA stuff isn't going to buy itself! Who cares about good 'ol American wilderness and the spectacle of nature's ancient rituals? We need more plastic garbage and cardboard houses!
This whole thing just makes me glow incandescent with rage. Not only can elk not breed without being tied up in our junk wire, but soon the very meadows where they've been breeding for longer than humans have even existed will be strip malls and tract houses. Is nothing sacred anymore?
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