Welcome, Elk

Story

Welcome, Elk. We’re glad you’re here.

Springtime in Yellowstone National Park is a wonderful, wonderful time of the year. Not only is the long winter heading out, but green is beginning to show everywhere.

Sure, there is a bit of snow here and there, especially at the higher elevations, but there are also fields of green grass, too. Oh, and it just happens to be the time of the year that so many newborn come into the world.

It is hard to saw how long this baby calf elk has been in the world… hours, certainly, but days? No, not really. It is newborn, fresh to this world, and it is looking around at its surroundings for the very first time.

Mom is away at the moment foraging a bit; baby calves are actually very safe when they are newborn, for they give off no scent for a predator to find them by. And, remarkably, they stay where they were placed by Mom and beginning to look out upon its new world.

There is nothing so precious as when a newborn stands for the first time, takes it first steps, and fully enters the world.

Welcome, Elk.