A wildlife park in Missouri has been forced to close indefinitely because one particularly aggressive bull elk won’t stop attacking visitors’ cars.
Lone Elk Park, located just outside St. Louis, closed Monday after officials decided the animal had become too much of a safety risk. Apparently, the problem is that he’s young, he’s horny, and he’s new to this whole being-in-charge thing.
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According to St. Louis Public Radio, the bull recently replaced his own father as the dominant male in the herd. This is his first mating season running the show, and he’s not exactly handling his newfound responsibilities gracefully.
“We have a younger, more inexperienced herd bull this year,” Eric Johnson, acting director of St. Louis County Parks and Recreation, said. “It’s his first year, and he’s acting a little bit like a teenager.”
One visitor, Theresa Hammer, learned that the hard way.
Hammer told St. Louis Public Radio she was sitting in her Ford Fusion last week when the bull approached her vehicle. She looked away briefly, and when she looked back, he was ramming his antlers into the front of her car.
“I looked back up, and he hit the front of my car with his horns,” she said. “He scratched up the whole side of my car, my hood and put a big dent in the rear quarter panel.”
Despite the damage, Hammer said she doesn’t blame the elk. After all, she’s the one driving through his home.
Lone Elk Park is a 546-acre drive-through wildlife park where visitors can observe elk, bison and other animals from their vehicles. Officials had posted warnings about keeping a safe distance from the elk, but visitors weren’t always following them.
And with the bull becoming increasingly aggressive, the county decided it was safer to close the park until he settles down.
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For what it’s worth, this kind of behavior isn’t unusual during the elk rut, which is the annual breeding season. Bull elk experience a surge in testosterone and become more territorial as they compete for females. That can make them particularly dangerous to people who get too close.
But even by elk standards, this guy is apparently a handful.
Johnson, who has worked for the parks department for 32 years, said it’s been roughly a decade since they’ve dealt with a bull quite this worked up.
“Some of [the bulls] have it figured out and they calmly go about their business, and sometimes it’s like this,” he said.
Officials haven’t announced a reopening date, but they’re monitoring the bull’s behavior daily and hope to reopen the park within the next several days.
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So, for now, an entire wildlife park is closed because one young elk can’t get his hormones under control.
Nature is beautiful.
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