We could hear the "calls" of the rut as we entered the Parc, but the elks bellowing were few and in the distance. There was only one harem in evidence as we drove through the Parc. We assumed that meant the rut had essentially finished.
Just past the entrance gates we spotted a young girl with her head out the window, seemingly ignoring the elk with its head in her window. It seemed she was bored with the whole thing: "Doesn't everyone have a elk head sticking in their window?"
The mature elk stags' antlers are certainly magnificent. (The "elk" on the right might be a red deer🙄)
The one harem we saw had at least 20 females gathered by the bull elk. The photo on the left was a mid-morning relaxation session, the one on the right was more animated - approaching cars and playing in the mud
Some of the adults were getting into the mud, but the youngsters were having a great time playing it
There are two enclosures with moose. One enclosure has three moose that rarely come out to the fence line, they stay back in the woods. The other enclosure houses Tico, an orphan juvenile acquired a few years ago and a female companion acquired last (?) year. Tico and friend are out in the open at times, but frequently, as with this visit, in an area one has to photograph through the fence. PhotoShop will sometimes be able to remove the fence, it did in the case of Tico's friend on the right, but couldn't for Tico's photo
The buffalo (bison) herd grows a bit each year and it seems that nursing of the young goes on into their second season
It seemed one of the white-tailed deer might have been getting more active with its antlers than wanted. The antlers had been cut off (which we have seen in such occasions with other resident animals)
The white-tailed deer dropped by our picnic table at lunch, having just bought 50 lbs of carrots at a nearby market, we had a few to share with them
The caribou have settled into their new accommodations. New signs have been posted making it clear that they are not to be fed carrots. There are silver foxes sharing the enclosure with the caribou, one decided to have its siesta in the middle of the road and didn't bother moving as cars edged by
The ibex tend to stay in one location, which is helpful as we know when to expect them. They seem to love putting their feet up on car doors to reach carrots and once we had one jump up on the hood of our car.
The wolves were relaxing and based on the turkey vultures flying overhead (see below) we suspect they had recently been fed.
The coyotes have been moved to two enclosures and share them with some bears. The coyotes are sometimes much harder to find in the new location, but we were lucky this time
One of the bear/coyote enclosures has cinnamon bears with the coyotes. The cinnamon bears can be hard to spot at times, but one was out for a stroll this time.
We arrived at the Rocky Mountain goat enclosure that is shared with six silver foxes. The Parc staff hide the food to make a game for the fox to find it. The ravens join in the game as well.
The fallow deer, like the others, are always on the look out for a carrot handout. They benefitted from the remaining carrots in out handout bags. (We kept the larger portion of the 50 lbs of carrots for ourselves)
Even the Canada geese seem to have acquired a taste for carrots...
As mentioned above, a large flock of turkey vultures had arrived over the Parc. A sure sign of something good to eat down below. Also in the sky were flocks of Canada geese, One loose V formation had 94 geese
A few wild turkeys showed themselves. A spotted sandpiper was checking the shoreline mud for morsels to eat
It seemed there were a few more great blue herons around than normal, or maybe it was same two actively moving around the Parc
A few non-animals caught my attention - some ferns and a bull thistle plant in bloom
