See This Cocky Elk Attack a Haystack In a Whacky Attempt to Impress a Horse

This has got to be one of the most hilarious examples of mistaken identity that we have ever seen and shows that when animals get it wrong – they get it very wrong indeed. Scroll down to watch the full video of a male elk trying to impress a horse by creating a whacky hairstyle with some hay!

Check Out My New Hairstyle!

This albeit slightly confused elk will make your day. He is making a desperate attempt to impress the horse in the paddock. The elk leaps and struts around and thrusts his head into the haystack. Some of the hay gets entangled in his impressive antlers which pleases him greatly and he proceeds to parade his new ‘hairstyle’ in front of the horse.

This happens over and over again but no matter how hard he tries the horse remains unimpressed and looks a little bewildered at times! The path of true love never did run smoothly. You can’t help but feel a little sorry for him.

The Elk Mating Season

As you have probably guessed, this bizarre behavior is connected with the mating season. Elk are large land-dwelling animals who live in mountain meadows, forests, and forest edges in North America, Central Asia, and East Asia. The males have antlers which can grow an inch a day. Male elks are called bulls and during the mating season they adopt some bizarre behaviors. According to the National Wildlife Federation, one of these is vocalizing – the sound is called a bugle and they do it to show off and assert dominance. Secondly, they fight by clashing their antlers together. Most would prefer to avoid direct physical confrontation as it carries a risk of injury, but it still happens from time to time.

At this time of year, you may also see elk rolling in their own urine – this may not seem like the best courting tactic to us but female elk apparently find it appealing. You may also see them raking at the ground or at vegetation to show their dominance – this may be what you see the bull in this clip doing.

Finally, the bulls sometimes drape vegetation across their antlers. To do this, they drag their antlers through trees. We see this bull elk do the same thing with the hay. We may think he looks ridiculous, but he thinks he looks super cool!

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