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This Month in Yellowstone
Ritualized Elk Aggression

This month, Bob Landis noticed two elk harems that were being guarded by two large bulls just below the corrals near Mammoth Hot Springs. As he watched the scene, and videotaped it, Bob observed a broad range of elk behavior that involved various ritualized aggressive behaviors and truly aggressive behavior.

During the rut, bull elk need to defend their harem of cows from other bulls. The larger and stronger bulls are better defenders and therefore have larger harems. They are able to pass on their superior genes to more offspring through this system. If bulls had to actually engage in frequent fights to defend their harems, the big, strong bulls would injure each other and lesser bulls would be able to have their inferior genes lower the overall health of the herd. Read more>>.