If you were an elk calf, fairly fresh to the world, and suddenly, bam—your herd is gone. You’re standing there in western Montana, all alone, trying to figure out life’s big questions: “What’s the deal with the burnt trees?” “How do I make my bugle sound like great-grandpa’s bugle?” and, most importantly, “Do horses even know what they’re doing?” What would you do?
Well, one confused calf elk found itself in that situation and made a bold decision. It apparently decided that the whole ‘find your own species’ thing was overrated, and instead, opted for the horse life. Why? Because horses look like they know how to throw a good pasture party. Plus, it was hunting season, and it felt a lot safer with the neigh-ers.
For weeks, this elk embraced a whole new identity. It traded in its elk life for a horse life, like joining in on their daily routine of grazing, running around and bucking while probably learning how to look majestic while doing absolutely nothing. Can you imagine the confusion?
The calf probably thought, “Hey, no one’s questioning this, right? I’m just going to blend in.” And blend in it did. Who needs antlers, anyway? They seem to only get his family shot.
Eventually, the calf realized it wasn’t exactly fitting in with the whole “horse” lifestyle (no epic bugles or long treks through the wild) and, finally, made the decision detach and search for the comfort of its elk family. The horses were kind of relieved. I mean, we all like meeting new people, but when they just linger and do everything you do for about a month, it is nice to get your life back.
In the end, this calf elk discovered that being a horse for a while was fun, but being an elk was its true calling. So, let this be a lesson to us all: sometimes we all go through phases where we try to be something we’re not (I mean, who hasn’t tried to pull off a cowboy hat?….no comment form me on that, by the way, as I just bought two more. lol), but it’s okay to realize you’re an elk at heart and embrace your wild self…even if you think horses are cool.
Moral of the story? Youngsters aren’t always the best at making big life decisions, and you should always just be yourself—because no one can pull off being a horse like a calf elk does.
A photo memory popped up on my computer from nine years ago that included these shots I took (with my Nikon) on a ranch near where I was hunting. I had written an article about it back then, and I decided to write what came to my head this time seeing the pictures after almost a decade, without really remembering what I had originally written. I rewrote this story before looking at the original article I wrote about these pictures–you can see the original article from 2015 here when I took the pictures..funny to see the two articles about the same photos written so far apart.
