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| Male elk bugling during the fall rut. Large male elk are known as bulls. Male elk have large antlers which are shed each year. Male elk engage in competitive mating behaviors during the rut, including posturing, antler wrestling and bugling, a loud series of screams which is intended to establish dominance over other males and attract females. Image ID: 19693 Species: Elk, Cervus canadensis Location: Mammoth Hot Springs, Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming, USA | Bull elk spar to establish harems of females, Gibbon Meadow. Image ID: 13151 Species: Elk, Cervus canadensis Location: Gibbon Meadows, Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming, USA | Male elk bugling during the fall rut. Large male elk are known as bulls. Male elk have large antlers which are shed each year. Male elk engage in competitive mating behaviors during the rut, including posturing, antler wrestling and bugling, a loud series of screams which is intended to establish dominance over other males and attract females. Image ID: 19697 Species: Elk, Cervus canadensis Location: Madison River, Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming, USA |
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| Male elk bugling during the fall rut. Large male elk are known as bulls. Male elk have large antlers which are shed each year. Male elk engage in competitive mating behaviors during the rut, including posturing, antler wrestling and bugling, a loud series of screams which is intended to establish dominance over other males and attract females. Image ID: 19698 Species: Elk, Cervus canadensis Location: Mammoth Hot Springs, Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming, USA | Elk, bull elk, adult male elk with large set of antlers. By September, this bull elk's antlers have reached their full size and the velvet has fallen off. This bull elk has sparred with other bulls for access to herds of females in estrous and ready to mate. Image ID: 19721 Species: Elk, Cervus canadensis Location: Mammoth Hot Springs, Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming, USA | Roosevelt elk, adult bull male with large antlers. This bull elk has recently shed the velvet that covers its antlers. While an antler is growing, it is covered with highly vascular skin called velvet, which supplies oxygen and nutrients to the growing bone; once the antler has achieved its full size, the velvet is lost and the antler's bone dies. This dead bone structure is the mature antler, which is itself shed after each mating season. Roosevelt elk grow to 10' and 1300 lb, eating grasses, sedges and various berries, inhabiting the coastal rainforests of the Pacific Northwest. Image ID: 25890 Species: Roosevelt elk, Cervus canadensis roosevelti Location: Redwood National Park, California, USA |
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| Roosevelt elk, adult bull male with large antlers. This bull elk has recently shed the velvet that covers its antlers. While an antler is growing, it is covered with highly vascular skin called velvet, which supplies oxygen and nutrients to the growing bone; once the antler has achieved its full size, the velvet is lost and the antler's bone dies. This dead bone structure is the mature antler, which is itself shed after each mating season. Roosevelt elk grow to 10' and 1300 lb, eating grasses, sedges and various berries, inhabiting the coastal rainforests of the Pacific Northwest. Image ID: 25878 Species: Roosevelt elk, Cervus canadensis roosevelti Location: Redwood National Park, California, USA | Elkhorn coral, Grand Caymand Island. Image ID: 32250 Location: Grand Cayman, Cayman Islands | Male elk bugling during the fall rut. Large male elk are known as bulls. Male elk have large antlers which are shed each year. Male elk engage in competitive mating behaviors during the rut, including posturing, antler wrestling and bugling, a loud series of screams which is intended to establish dominance over other males and attract females. Image ID: 19700 Species: Elk, Cervus canadensis Location: Madison River, Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming, USA |
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| Bull elk in sage brush with large rack of antlers during the fall rut (mating season). This bull elk has sparred with other bulls to establish his harem of females with which he hopes to mate. Image ID: 19718 Species: Elk, Cervus canadensis Location: Mammoth Hot Springs, Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming, USA | Sea otters mating. The male holds the female's head or nose with his jaws during copulation. Visible scars are often present on females from this behavior. Sea otters have a polygynous mating system. Many males actively defend territories and will mate with females that inhabit their territory or seek out females in estrus if no territory is established. Males and females typically bond for the duration of estrus, or about 3 days. Image ID: 21606 Species: Sea otter, Enhydra lutris Location: Elkhorn Slough National Estuarine Research Reserve, Moss Landing, California, USA | A sea otter, resting on its back, holding its paw out of the water for warmth. While the sea otter has extremely dense fur on its body, the fur is less dense on its head, arms and paws so it will hold these out of the cold water to conserve body heat. Image ID: 21602 Species: Sea otter, Enhydra lutris Location: Elkhorn Slough National Estuarine Research Reserve, Moss Landing, California, USA |
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| Bull elk, antlers bearing velvet, Gibbon Meadow. Elk are the most abundant large mammal found in Yellowstone National Park. More than 30,000 elk from 8 different herds summer in Yellowstone and approximately 15,000 to 22,000 winter in the park. Bulls grow antlers annually from the time they are nearly one year old. When mature, a bulls rack may have 6 to 8 points or tines on each side and weigh more than 30 pounds. The antlers are shed in March or April and begin regrowing in May, when the bony growth is nourished by blood vessels and covered by furry-looking velvet. Image ID: 13154 Species: Elk, Cervus canadensis Location: Gibbon Meadows, Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming, USA | Elk in the Gibbon River. Image ID: 13155 Species: Elk, Cervus canadensis Location: Gibbon Meadows, Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming, USA | Bull elk in sage brush with large rack of antlers during the fall rut (mating season). This bull elk has sparred with other bulls to establish his harem of females with which he hopes to mate. Image ID: 19702 Species: Elk, Cervus canadensis Location: Mammoth Hot Springs, Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming, USA |
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| Roosevelt elk, adult bull male with large antlers. Roosevelt elk grow to 10' and 1300 lb, eating grasses, sedges and various berries, inhabiting the coastal rainforests of the Pacific Northwest. Image ID: 25879 Species: Roosevelt elk, Cervus canadensis roosevelti Location: Redwood National Park, California, USA | Roosevelt elk, adult bull male with large antlers. Roosevelt elk grow to 10' and 1300 lb, eating grasses, sedges and various berries, inhabiting the coastal rainforests of the Pacific Northwest. Image ID: 25885 Species: Roosevelt elk, Cervus canadensis roosevelti Location: Redwood National Park, California, USA | A sea otter eats a clam that it has taken from the shallow sandy bottom of Elkhorn Slough. Because sea otters have such a high metabolic rate, they eat up to 30% of their body weight each day in the form of clams, mussels, urchins, crabs and abalone. Sea otters are the only known tool-using marine mammal, using a stone or old shell to open the shells of their prey as they float on their backs. Image ID: 21612 Species: Sea otter, Enhydra lutris Location: Elkhorn Slough National Estuarine Research Reserve, Moss Landing, California, USA |
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| Elkhorn coral, Grand Caymand Island. Image ID: 32048 Location: Grand Cayman, Cayman Islands | Elkhorn coral, Grand Caymand Island. Image ID: 32049 Location: Grand Cayman, Cayman Islands | Elkhorn coral, Grand Caymand Island. Image ID: 32050 Location: Grand Cayman, Cayman Islands |
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| Roosevelt elk, adult bull male with large antlers. Roosevelt elk grow to 10' and 1300 lb, eating grasses, sedges and various berries, inhabiting the coastal rainforests of the Pacific Northwest. Image ID: 25883 Species: Roosevelt elk, Cervus canadensis roosevelti Location: Redwood National Park, California, USA | Elk graze and rest among wildflowers blooming in the Gibbon Meadow, summer. Image ID: 13159 Species: Elk, Cervus canadensis Location: Gibbon Meadows, Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming, USA | Elk in the Gibbon River. Image ID: 13164 Species: Elk, Cervus canadensis Location: Gibbon Meadows, Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming, USA |
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| Large male elk (bull) in snow covered meadow near Madison River. Only male elk have antlers, which start growing in the spring and are shed each winter. The largest antlers may be 4 feet long and weigh up to 40 pounds. Antlers are made of bone which can grow up to one inch per day. While growing, the antlers are covered with and protected by a soft layer of highly vascularised skin known as velvet. The velvet is shed in the summer when the antlers have fully developed. Bull elk may have six or more tines on each antler, however the number of tines has little to do with the age or maturity of a particular animal. Image ID: 19692 Species: Elk, Cervus canadensis Location: Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming, USA | Male elk bugling during the fall rut. Large male elk are known as bulls. Male elk have large antlers which are shed each year. Male elk engage in competitive mating behaviors during the rut, including posturing, antler wrestling and bugling, a loud series of screams which is intended to establish dominance over other males and attract females. Image ID: 19695 Species: Elk, Cervus canadensis Location: Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming, USA | Female elk along the Madison River during an early fall snow. Image ID: 19701 Species: Elk, Cervus canadensis Location: Madison River, Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming, USA |
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| Male elk bugling during the fall rut. Large male elk are known as bulls. Male elk have large antlers which are shed each year. Male elk engage in competitive mating behaviors during the rut, including posturing, antler wrestling and bugling, a loud series of screams which is intended to establish dominance over other males and attract females. Image ID: 19703 Species: Elk, Cervus canadensis Location: Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming, USA | Juvenile elk in golden, late afternoon light, in meadow along Madison River, autumn. Image ID: 19704 Species: Elk, Cervus canadensis Location: Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming, USA | Male elk bugling during the fall rut. Large male elk are known as bulls. Male elk have large antlers which are shed each year. Male elk engage in competitive mating behaviors during the rut, including posturing, antler wrestling and bugling, a loud series of screams which is intended to establish dominance over other males and attract females. Image ID: 19708 Species: Elk, Cervus canadensis Location: Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming, USA |
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