Elk

A bull elk grows and sheds a full rack of antlers every year — up to 40 pounds of bone, laid down at nearly an inch a day in early summer, then dropped in late winter to start over. Come September, listen for the bugle: a rising whistle that carries for miles across open valley, used to gather cows and warn off rival bulls during the fall rut. The elk you see here belong to a species that once ranged across nearly all of North America, from the Atlantic coast to the Pacific.