Elk Wrap
Yesterday, I came across a cow elk rolled up in barbed wire. She’d tangled herself in seven strands of a tumbled-down fence, and was confounded as a kitten in a ball of yarn. She was still alive, wide-eyed with panic. I stopped to help her get free.
The Madison Valley is a primo elk migration corridor. An estimated 7,000 wapiti winter here, and then head into the mountains for the summer. 15% will migrate as far as Yellowstone National Park. It’s a spectacle of nature worth seeing…but one that’s hard on elk and fences.
Elk versus fences is a favorite complaint among old-timers around here. But, as I tried to free this cow, I thought how it isn’t fair to blame the elk for getting stuck. A fence with seven strands of barbed wire…really? Someone over-specked this job, and then used wimpy staples to hold the wire up. No wonder it’s tumbled down into a hazard worthy of Folsom State Prison. I shivered to imagine the harm it would do a horse. — Ryan T. Bell
P.S. Checkout this video of another elk in need of help. These hunters found a cow elk trapped in an ice cave. Goes to show the myriad ways a lariat comes in handy.
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