We've seen predators go head to head with prey, elk and deer take on males with their own species—and each other—during the rut, but never have we seen anything like this video. A rather confident elk struts up to a domestic horse after deciding he's going to show a horse who is boss.
Unfortunately for him, the attempt turns out to be in vain: The brave horse proves that having an impressive rack isn't all that matters as he stands up to this pushy bull elk. While the interaction is fascinating to watch, the humans watching it play out are understandably concerned about what's happening.
The video shows a couple of horses penned up in a campground, eating their food. Right from the beginning, you can tell that the horse is feeling agitated, and it doesn't take long before we discover what's got the brown horse all riled up—a full-grown elk asserting his dominance.
It looks like the elk thought he'd waltz up, take a bite of the smorgasbord the horses were enjoying, and everything would be copacetic. Except, it wasn't. The horse was not in the mood to share and didn't appreciate the elk treating his food like a walk-up buffet.
The large elk certainly didn't appreciate being told no, lowering his antlers threateningly. Not many animals will stand up to a bull elk after he lowers his head like that, but the horse showed no fear of the antlered intruder. It helps that their body sizes are roughly equivalent to one another. The horse's owners were rightly concerned about the situation, and you can even hear them say they were looking for a rock at one point. A big bull like that could do significant damage with those massive antlers: Damage that could lead to a costly veterinarian bill.
Suppose you think a bull elk won't attack a domesticated farmyard animal. In that case, this is at least the second video of a member of the deer family interacting with an animal in a pen. We recently also saw a video of a whitetail buck trying to pick a fight with a bull nearly three times his size.
Fortunately, once the humans finally decided to leave the trailer, that was enough to convince the bull that he had finally overstayed his welcome. We're glad this situation turned out well for all parties involved and that they were able to capture the whole thing on video. It makes for a moment to remember for years to come.
