I wouldn't have believed it if I didn't see it with my own eyes, counted them myself, and taken the pics to prove it...
Today's weather changed dramaticly as a cold front moved into the northern part of the state and though Bozeman only saw the southern end of it; I was convinced it would likely be good for elk movement so made the trip after work. I wasn't disapointed, while the lighting was shit the bulls were going balistic and chasing, fighting, and just doing what they do in September; but even more so because of the low cloud cover and light rain (temps dipping into the low 40's before sunset).
The seven bulls in the pic preceding this were all together and slowly working their way out of the treeline down to the action below. Once there they interacted with another band of bulls; some who were already working cows and others who entered the show from the woods right of frame. All in all I counted 12 individual bulls. Not all were huge trophys of course as several were rag horns and satelite bulls lingering just out of frame, but a couple young ones spared and even a black one showed up which really blew my mind (pics below)...??!!!
As you can tell from the above pic I'm quite a distance away so the pics have had some post editting to get them clear, but one things for sure; I have done nothing to manipulate the image of the black one your seeing and am still scratching my head about that one.
Here he is again, entering in the upper righthand corner, and appears to have a messed up rack as well; especially compared to the HUGE guy below him whose G-4's are absolutely incredible!!
I dont know if there's anything to this, but viewing the above pic the dominance of the biggest bull being 'above' the other bulls on the hillside appeared to have quelled any mischief they might have been up too before the big guy showed up.
One last look at the big man before he disappered into the thick stuff with is small harem of hot cows..
Meanwhile these two satelite bulls continued to spar (for the second time) and put on quite a show..
It continued for well over a minute and covered roughly 100 feet of field before they called it a draw...
As soon as they stopped they immediately looked toward their female audience, though didn't get the reaction they expected; so continued duking it out for a third time instead...
While doing so another much bigger bull showed himself briefly and simply ignored the two satelites and came in to get the girls up outa their beds and 'show them who the man was afterall'...
..............
I swear rain or shine, 88 degrees or 20; Montana was always the place for me and I'm damned glad I quit my job and moved here!!
To think such incredible things are right here in my backyard is almost like heaven on earth I tell ya...
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I'll be sure and see what they're up to next week too; so check back often if it interests ya...
Later,
Moe
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