Hell hath no fury like an angry mother’s wrath. I’m not sure if that’s how the old proverb goes, but it sure seems to apply to a newly-viral video showing a couple of Coloradoans and their dogs being chased into their own home by a charging cow elk. The video was captured in the town of Estes Park, which is famous for elk-human confrontation, and shared by @natureismetal four days ago. See it for yourself below.
According to the caption, the elk was defending her newborn calf, which was stashed away in some brush, when the unsuspecting Estes Park residents encountered her on a neighborhood walk. Earlier in the day, the elk had attacked two stray dogs that had threatened her newborn, @natureismetal wrote. One of those dogs was later euthanized.
“As the pair and their dogs innocently returned from their walk, they unknowingly came close enough to the elk’s hidden calf to elicit the protective mother’s aggressive response,” the caption reads. ” From the video you can see the elk stopped just short of the woman’s cabin by digging its hooves into her deck, where it left permanent grooves.”
In the video, the sheer power of the cow elk’s forelegs is on full display as she slams her hooves down of the cabin porch. There’s no sound in this short clip, but I imagine there was an audible thud at the moment of impact.
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It’s unclear when the incident took place, but it must have happened sometime in the spring if the elk was protecting a brand-new calf. According to Montana State University, cow elk hide and protect their offspring for two to three weeks after they’re born. Calves remain safe by lying motionless in the grass as the mother patrols the surrounding area for approaching threats. Calves can’t survive independent of their mother until the early fall.
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