Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

Well, they're not exactly pets, but they've been hanging around for a few days. They seem to have moved on today. Sorry for the crummy cell phone pic, but it was all I had at the time...

Better your backyard than mine! Yours is a lot bigger, room to move around in.

Wow -- that's a sizeable amount of visitors arriving !!
I can see why they say Montana is Big Sky country... you really capture that feeling with your picture and the trees silhouetted.

What are those? Meese?

kiramdear wrote:What are those? Meese?

There's a hint in the name of the image... But I'll not make you look. It's part of a herd of elk that was hanging around. I couldn't exactly count 'em, but I'd guess there were around 60 of 'em.

Big critters too, pretty close to the size of a horse.

We do have quite a few moose in this area, haven't seen any near the house though. They tend to like wetter marshy areas down by the river...

CJ, those are really cool! I remember when I was in 2nd grade and I went to yellowstone and then montana, and I saw some elk. Remarkable indeed. We should all name them!

Remarkable indeed.

and good eatin' too!

teeder wrote:

Remarkable indeed.

and good eatin' too!

Yep, they sure are...

cjj wrote:

teeder wrote:

Remarkable indeed.

and good eatin' too!

Yep, they sure are...

Are they friendly? How cool would it be to have a pet elk? I think its self explanatory...

Look like CJ has a home where the buffalo roam and the deer and the antelope play!

rickenbrother wrote:Look like CJ has a home where the buffalo roam and the deer and the antelope play!

Well, that was more likely where I used to live, in N.E. Montana. We had antelope ALL OVER the place.

Now, if you think deer are kinda stupid 'cause they'll just stand there in front of your car and let you hit them, you ain't ever seen an antelope. Antelope are kinda like the proverbial redneck. There will be a small group of them standing beside the highway and you'd swear a couple of them say to the rest of the group, "Hey, how much ya wanna bet I can get across the road before that car creams me?"


Seriously. They just do that, wait until you're about 100 feet away and then just jump in front of you. I've even seen 'em do it to freight trains ( they do NOT win ). You'd think the noise those monsters make would scare anything away, but not antelope.

Now, buffalo are a totally different story. I knew a guy who raised them. He had his pens and corrals set up with highway guard rails and they still beat 'em up pretty bad. Can you believe it? There's actually some group out there advocating letting buffalo roam free all over Montana! Nice idea, but man think of the wreckage on the highways! I'd tend to think a couple of them might actually derail a freight train locomotive.

Anyway, enough rambling. No, elk are NOT friendly. Mostly they are kinda skittish and will generally run away if you approach them. But if they get a mind to, they might decide to attack, and they can kill you in an instant, especially the bulls when they have their antlers. The bulls weigh about 700 lbs and are about 5 ft at the shoulder, higher at the head. And amazingly strong. They can gore you with the antlers, kick you, and stomp you to death. But luckily, they generally don't want to do anything more than run away. Moose are another story completely. Do not mess with them.

But yeah, it's definitely cool to live with all of the wildlife around. I've pretty much lived around wild animals most of my life, except a few years in college and shortly afterwards. Well, there was a lot of wildlife there too, but not quite the same type...

We have lots of "wildlife" here too CJ............both types.

cjj wrote:

rickenbrother wrote:Look like CJ has a home where the buffalo roam and the deer and the antelope play!

Well, that was more likely where I used to live, in N.E. Montana. We had antelope ALL OVER the place.

Now, if you think deer are kinda stupid 'cause they'll just stand there in front of your car and let you hit them, you ain't ever seen an antelope. Antelope are kinda like the proverbial redneck. There will be a small group of them standing beside the highway and you'd swear a couple of them say to the rest of the group, "Hey, how much ya wanna bet I can get across the road before that car creams me?"


Seriously. They just do that, wait until you're about 100 feet away and then just jump in front of you. I've even seen 'em do it to freight trains ( they do NOT win ). You'd think the noise those monsters make would scare anything away, but not antelope.

Now, buffalo are a totally different story. I knew a guy who raised them. He had his pens and corrals set up with highway guard rails and they still beat 'em up pretty bad. Can you believe it? There's actually some group out there advocating letting buffalo roam free all over Montana! Nice idea, but man think of the wreckage on the highways! I'd tend to think a couple of them might actually derail a freight train locomotive.

Anyway, enough rambling. No, elk are NOT friendly. Mostly they are kinda skittish and will generally run away if you approach them. But if they get a mind to, they might decide to attack, and they can kill you in an instant, especially the bulls when they have their antlers. The bulls weigh about 700 lbs and are about 5 ft at the shoulder, higher at the head. And amazingly strong. They can gore you with the antlers, kick you, and stomp you to death. But luckily, they generally don't want to do anything more than run away. Moose are another story completely. Do not mess with them.

But yeah, it's definitely cool to live with all of the wildlife around. I've pretty much lived around wild animals most of my life, except a few years in college and shortly afterwards. Well, there was a lot of wildlife there too, but not quite the same type...

That must suck to see an elk get mauled by a freight train.
I do like the fact that the elks mess with drivers, thats pretty funny.

On the Buffalo topic, I could see where that guy is coming from. The population of Buffalo and Bison went so far down since the indians, they have practically become extinct a couple of times. I say let the buffalo reproduce and be abundant.

winston wrote:We have lots of "wildlife" here too CJ............both types.

If you didn't say that, I was going to!

IvanMunoz wrote: I say let the buffalo reproduce and be abundant.

Yeah, because I love buffalo mozzarella!

rickenbrother wrote:

IvanMunoz wrote: I say let the buffalo reproduce and be abundant.

Yeah, because I love buffalo mozzarella!

Buffalo steaks are rather tasty too...