Elk attempts to jump fence to follow massive herd but fails miserably

After 1.5 minutes of trying, the elk finally succeeds and rejoins the herd

April 06, 2014 by David Strege

An elk herd estimated at to be 200 in number jumps a fence and crosses 

a road near Yellowstone National Park. Screen grab from video

An incredibly large herd of elk followed the leader over a wire fence, across a roadway, and onto a snowy field. But for one elk, the exercise wasn’t so easy. After the entire herd crosses the road ahead of it, the elk not adept at jumping hurdles was left behind, struggling to get over a fence that was negotiated easily by the rest of the herd.

The incident occurred in Bozeman, Montana, near Yellowstone National Park and was captured on video by Austin Stonnell. It’s a perfect example of the “If at first you don’t succeed … ” axiom:

The elk left behind tried jumping over the fence, but that didn’t work. It tried going through the fence, but that didn’t work. It ran up and down next to the fence trying to find a better way through until a car passed and scared it away from the fence.

With a newfound determination, the elk finally made it over the fence and rejoined the herd after one and a half minutes of trying.

In an email to GrindTV Outdoor, Stonnell described how he stumbled upon the scene and got the video:

“I was heading into town and thought it was a big herd of cows at first, but then I saw the alpha male leading the herd so I pulled out my camera and was gonna get some close-ups. But then they started jumping [over the fence].

“I estimated there were 200 elk, but it may be less. I am fairly new to Montana, so I thought this size of herd was normal, but no [it isn’t]. The largest herd I’ve seen until this was only a few elk. I felt so bad for the lone elk that I was close to hopping out of my car to cut the fence.”

In the end, that wasn’t necessary, because the lone elk discovered the art of the running start.

Submitted by club member Jim Martin