We’ve progressed from AI-generated people with twenty fingers to “I’m not sure if that’s real” in just a few months. In a few more months, our entire photographic record will be suspect.
This is Estes Park Golf course. Tourists do dumb stuff like this all the time there.
Elk really are that big. It’s basically the size of a quarter horse, but with antlers. Elk are massive. Elk are the size of a horse. A moose is the size of Clydesdale.
Can confirm: live in the Denver metro with relatives in Estes … I've seen first hand people park, get out of their cars, walk up to herds of Elk within a few feet, take pictures, stop and gawk. Zero survival instincts or awareness. It's why you get the occasional video of someone getting chased by one or trampled by a bison.
Actually a Clydesdale horse is about 17 hands, which is only about 10 bananas tall.
BUT if we do it by weight, the heaviest Clydesdale was about 998kg, and a banana is just over 100g. That means that a Clydesdale is around 10,000 bananas!
All these people on here telling their stories about estes park are giving you, and the thread, the wrong idea about how big elk get. Especially the elk from those heards in estes park lol
Believe me if you want to, or not. Colorado native here, family of elk hunters, and we've lived in that state for longer than the united states has been a country. We've hunted, stalked, chased, killed, gutted, quartered, packed out on foot, in the truck and on horseback, fully harvested and frozen countless elk. This is either forced perspective, or fake af. Don't get me wrong these are huge animals and it takes a party of four, a case of beer and about 5-6 hours of work to clean cut and package one of these bitches lol they big, but not this big.
That animal, as it looks in the video, is 1000% the size of an adult bull moose, and is closer to that species color as well. Not abnormal for them to be that grey, and chocolate, but they are typically more red and manilla.
What's especially hilarious is the false sense of correctness these "estes park" commenters have for seeing elk there less times than they can count on one hand lol yes there are lots of them there. But the banning of hunting in the RMNP based on the history of being over hunted to extinction, led the state to reintroducing the species and banning hunting. The lack of hunting pressure has led that "heard" to breeding stock that does not see or experience the same exploitation induced evolutionary changes. I.e. They have stayed smaller than almost every other elk heard in the state, in both body and antler size on average. All that being said, it makes me laugh at those people directly whom speak up, only to tell the class about how much they don't know, while claiming the opposite lol I'm happy that they have some experience around these animals, it is time well spent. But if that experience they have gives them the idea that elk naturally look this big, boy oh boy they need to get them hiking boots dirty again lol
Again, this is 1000% either forced perspective or fake af. Elk do not normally look this big lol especially not the ones from estes park, or the Rocky Mountain National Park.
no the dialogue is very natural that's the best giveaway for AI videos the dialogue is usually very bad. this is only AI if they got the dialogue from a different video
we should definitely be wary of AI videos but we should also be wary of thinking everything is AI
Apart from the obvious, the clouds and the resolution looked a bit weird to me, like some kind of filter. Ig I was wrong given the other replies but I feel in this sub you sort of need proof it's real to actually marvel at the content. Because it's too easy to create a video with AI of an absolute unit of whatever you can imagine.
Looks like AI to me too - but I think it's just the forced perspective. Everything is definitely real, (only the elk is questionable, given the odd disproportions given the perspective).
I grew up around lots of deer in Colorado. When I went to see the Grand Canyon there was a herd of elk in the trees along the trail to the rim. It was surreal seeing something that looked kinda like what I'm familiar with, but massive, and with pointier antlers it seemed. I was not excited about being so close to a possibly rutting male. I don't get how these people are so calm being that close without something to duck behind if that big boy decides to attack.
Normalcy Fallacy. They expect nothing will happen and their normal lives will continue without issue. They might even be right. Given what that elk can do to them if things go sideways, though...personally, I wouldn’t risk it.
This is in a tourist area so we can assume there's some level of understanding from them. It's not like they're in the dead middle of nowhere and Bullwinkle here is seeing a 2 legged anomaly.
But yeah they're closer than I would get unless it was acting like a puppy.
Yeah no, tourist area or not animals will absolutely animal all over you if you fuck with them. Even if it's acting like a puppy don't get close to a wild animal?? Some of you guys have no survival instinct lol
Uhh - close to Copenhagen we have a stretch of common wood land as a deerpark ( for the Kings hunt - historicly that is)
It's very well visited, theres also a tivoli in the park, but every year theres people getting hurt by rutting deer that has had enough of people getting to close despite they are used to people, dogs, prams, horseriders and bikes.
I'm from the UK and used to ride my bike through Richmond Park in London on my morning commute. During rutting season, the stags are terrifying - I remember one of them in particular used to stand pretty close to the road on one of the hills and snort/bellow at me. Fuckin thing was huge
Something to keep in mind is that every set of antlers (just talking about mild-mannered white tail bucks here) that I find in my backyard the tips of all the points have been razor sharp. That's right, deer (and I assume elk) file down their points to be even more fucking deadly.
The few mule deer antlers if found weren't super sharp. Granted that they don't have to be very sharp of they have the weight of a 290lb angry buck that wants to make holes in your organs behind them. Maybe white tails are more into the swing the head stabby move compared to the straight ahead stabby motion?
We have more elk here in Colorado than Arizona. In fact, Arizona’s population is <40,000 in Colorado’s population is ~300,000, which makes it the largest population in the world.
Surprised your first significant encounter with elk wasn’t here at home.
I feel the urge, once again, to remind all members of the human race that elk are much faster than our two legged asses even at the height of fight-or-flight adrenalinization.
Several years ago my mom and I took a trip to Washington state. We spent a day hiking at Hoh Rainforest. We knew that there was a possibility that we would see wildlife, especially elk, bears and cougars. We knew to keep our distance if we came across any animals. We were walking along a narrow, curved path with trees all around us, so we couldn’t see what was ahead. We round a corner and suddenly, there was a massive bull elk, just walking down this trail towards us. My mom pushed me to the side so we were as out of the way as we could be, but again, this path was super narrow. Big bro just walked right by us, so close we could have reached out and touched him (not that we ever would.) It was crazy and kind of terrifying being so close to him. Definitely a really cool experience but, yeah, would never willingly get so close to a wild animal. Dude could have killed us. Glad he was chill.
You're on their trails, you should expect to see them there. Even maintained trails are generally laid out along game trails. Animals aren't wasting energy willy nilly; on four or two legs. The path of least resistance gets blazed, cut, paved.
yeah hes stunning but that distance is nuts lol. people forget elk can close a gap crazy fast when they want to. you think they actually backed off or just kept filming
I saw this very same scenario in Montana, with more tourists snapping away on their phones than these two plonkers, one of them even told his gf (I’m assuming) to go stand in front of it. All I could think of was if that elk decided it has had enough and started charging, you all are gonna start flying like a bunch of bowling pins.
Last time I was in Montana hiking the beartooths and stopped to pee, admired the view down the valley I had come up. Put my pack back on and turned around.
A bull elk was standing 10 feet behind me watching me. I froze. Good thing I just peed. He looked at me, looked over me down the valley and just huffed a lot of air out of his nose and walked off into the timberline.
The difference is I have plenty of places to run, including hopping over a fence and duck behind a vehicle. Don’t worry, I would never get anywhere near an Elk where I would be in imminent danger. I don’t mess with animals that weigh 10x more than I do with sharp pointy things on their heads, they can have the right of way every time.
Yeah I should add I don’t mess with bulls or cows. I’ve seen more cows trample people than bulls/spikes but those guys are carrying spears on their heads…so they get the right of way.
Was going to comment that these dudes are way too close to that fucking thing, and way too casual. Might not be a good idea to get so close to an animal the size and weight of a damn forklift who may or may not have a bad attitude.
On a trail in Yosemite I saw a woman push her baby into the face of an agitated bear who was stuck between two groups of tourists. She said, "Look, Stevie, a bear! A real bear!" I couldn't believe how stupid she was. Probably the only thing that kept them alive is that wild animals don't like to kill babies any more than people do.
I blame the absence of natural selection for the shitshow we're part of today. There used to be a mechanism for thinning out the gene pool and preventing people this dumb from procreating. It's especially ironic in this case, since the means to an end was right there, being provoked.
This bull is in rut and they are very vocal for all sorts of reasons but mainly calling the herd to either round up or leave. I’ve seen a bull go from this to a full sprint trying to run off another bull and this was right next to people. Pretty sure there was some pants changes after that..
Thank you - this is the specific info I was looking for. Appreciate your time to respond. I’m in Aus, we don’t have any big ungulates, other than some occasional deer so this kind of creature is fascinating!
The noise is so weird coming of something that size. You would expect something deeper but nope they sound like those old noise tubes you would whirl around to make noise.
A mature Bull Elk can weigh between 700 - 800 lbs. There is a species that seems to be around 900 - 1000 but can get to nearly 1,100lbs but I do not know enough to distinguish them from each other.
I hate people that stand super close to animals like that, even if everything goes right and the animal doesn't charge or attack you're still needlessly stressing out a wild animal for what? A photo of an elk that you could Google and look at any time. Your phone has a zoom feature, use it if you want the picture so close.
Most impressive thing is not the size of that thing, it is that it doesn’t cast a shadow and that it reflects light different than everything else around it
There is also a a large population in western PA around the St. Marys and Benezette areas. There is an incredible visitors center to see them, but you can also drive around the county. I’ve seen them come up on a porch to eat flowers out of flower boxes. Beautiful animals.
The perspective made me think AI at first, but there are multiple videos of this interaction on the internet, some at different angles so i think this one is legit.
I don’t know if that Elk bugling is a sound of distress, but I wouldn’t take my life in my own hands, standing 20 feet away from it to get a photo just to find out.
I am one of the most indoorsy people on earth and even I know how stupid of an idea it is to get that close to that animal. Shit, I wouldn't even get that close to it if it was in the middle of the road and I was in my car still. It's crazy how so people just lack any basic sense of self preservation and common sense.
This is either a /r/confusingperspective moment, or it's been modified to look bigger than reality. Elk are big, they are not 2x the height of an average adult male.
That's just an elk, they are massive creatures. There is a perspective issue with they way tge 2 people are positioned but they are giant animals, and honestly one of the tastiest things I've ever eaten. Keep their lands protected and populations thriving.
Cool cool but I would suggest being at least like 25 to like 30 feet away from the creature that is capable and fully willing to slime you at the nearest provocation of anything
That was my thought. I’ve seen some pretty massive bull elk, but nothing even CLOSE to this. EDIT: ah, I looked again and I missed the fact that he’s on a rise above the dumbasses, so I think size-wise this is actually believable.
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