Elk Bugling, Mammoth
A bull elk in full cry among the sagebrush at Mammoth Hot Springs, a corner of Yellowstone where elk live all year round.
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The bull is mid-bugle, chest-deep in sagebrush, head raised and muzzle open, a shadowed hillside and a single conifer behind him. He was photographed at Mammoth Hot Springs in mid-September 2017, inside the elk rut, which runs from early September to mid-October.
Bulls bugle to announce their availability and fitness to the cows, and to warn and challenge rival bulls. Nothing visible leaves the mouth here: the morning air carries no plume of breath, so the call registers only in the stance. The rack laid back over his shoulders is true bone, an extension of the skull grown each spring and dropped again in March or April. Elk live at Mammoth year-round, often feeding on lawns irrigated since the US Cavalry planted them in 1902, though none of that is in this frame.