29 September 2023
If you’ve been waiting to hear the elk bugling in Pennsylvania, now’s the time to make the trip to Benezette, PA.
In September and October Pennsylvania’s elk (Cervus canadensis) are in the rut, their annual period of sexual activity. The bulls gather harems, pursue the females, antler-spar with other males, and “sing” a bugling love song.
Like white-tailed deer, male elk grow new antlers every year but these cervids are huge. Males are 25% larger than the females and can weigh up to 1,100 pounds with antlers that can span five feet.
Consequently it’s a bit surprising that the bugle is such a high-pitched call. Its bell-like echoing carries far in the woods and fields.
This bull elk was recently seen through the thick morning fog, bugling loudly in a clearing in #ElkStateForest.@thePAWilds #PaElk #WildlifeWednesday #PaWildlife #OutdoorsInPa #FallInPa
— PA Department of Conservation & Natural Resources (@DCNRnews) September 27, 2023
? Elk making long high-pitched sound. pic.twitter.com/9khNBeM0xB
Visit the Elk Country Visitor’s Center in Benezette to see and hear the elk, perhaps even in the parking lot.
If you can’t be there in person, watch the Pennsylvania Game Commission’s live stream.
p.s. Elk, also called wapiti, were reintroduced in Pennsylvania in 1913 after we extirpated them in the late 1800s. Did you know white-tailed deer were reintroduced to Pennsylvania, too?
(photo by Paul Staniszewski)
How majestic! (What an other-worldly sound!)