LARGE ANIMAL ATTACKS - Medicine for Mountaineering and Other Wilderness Activities - page 471

ber) male elk can also be aggressive. Do not approach elk or their calves. Give elk plenty
of room. Keep at a distance of at least three bus lengths. Keep your dog on a leash.”
A woman in Estes Park, Colorado, received major abdominal injuries from the hooves
of a female elk when she inadvertently came between the animal and its calf in the back-
yard of her home.
At least two individuals working on domestic elk ranches, one in Colorado and one in
Vermont, have been killed by elk gorings. Such attacks by wild elk appear to be rare. Two
individuals attacked by a 700-pound bull elk in Yellowstone National Park received only
cuts and bruises. However, elk have been videotaped attacking cars in Yellowstone. Anec-
dotal accounts of elk attacks abound but are not well documented.
Little information is available about dealing with attacking elk, but individuals under
attack have gotten behind trees and used them as a shield from the animal. People should
not invade the animals' territory, particularly during spring, when females are protecting
calves, and in fall, when these animals are in rut.
Deer
Attacks by deer are even less common but do occur occasionally. A seventy-nine-year-
old man was fatally gored by a pet buck in Alabama in 2003.
A sixty-six-year-old Georgia man was found dead after being gored by a deer inside the
deer's pen on his property.
Afifty-six-year oldCalifornia womanwashospitalized fortwelvedayswithheadinjur-
iesfromanattackbyabuckoutsideherhome.Herhusband,whocametoheraid,received
bruises from the animal's antlers.
More typically, when a California couple returned to their pickup after watering a
friend's vegetable garden, a buck ran up to the truck, knocked the man on his back, and
pinned him to the ground with his antlers, although the man was not injured. His wife
swung at the animal with a piece of firewood, and the deer turned on her and gored her
arm.
Six individuals were attacked by deer on the campus of Southern Illinois University in
Carbondale in 2005 but received only bruises.
Wildlife biologists say the attacks are unusual but could be a sign that deer populations
are getting too large and the animals are becoming too accustomed to humans and their
pets. Deer populations throughout the United States have increased exponentially in recent
decades, and the number of white-tailed deer is now greater than at any time in recorded
U.S. history. For the most part, predators are gone, and even major expansions of hunting
seasons have not kept the population under control.
LARGE ANIMAL ATTACKS: AFRICA, ASIA, AND ELSEWHERE
Bears