The first reports of an entangled elk have come out at Cowichan Lake, with photos.
The poor guy, who made headlines last year for his clothesline-bedecked rack, now has an inner tube, and windchimes lodged up there this year so far.
It’s time for residents to take a serious look around their properties to see if there are any bits and pieces that a wandering elk could walk off with.
As much as we often laugh at the array of weird stuff the animals can get stuck in their antlers, they can eventually pose a serious hazard to the health of the creatures. There’s the danger of them getting stuck in the bush, as well as the items scraping raw spots, embedding themselves and becoming infected.
So do you have anything hanging around that an elk might stray into? Time to take it down for a while.
Of course, there’s always the problem of pollution. The inner tube our latest headline elk is wearing was likely abandoned by a summer river tuber. Perhaps it was punctured or otherwise damaged and thus not useful as a flotation device anymore. What the owner should have done was haul it out and dispose of it at a proper waste facility, but far too often such things just get dumped in our wild places.
Out of sight, out of mind, as they float on down the river, then likely drive on out of town.
When we talk about the problem of pollution in our woods and along our waterways we often discuss what an eyesore they are — which is certainly true. But to the animal population, they can have much more serious repercussions, as shown by the elk.
One cringes at the thought of wildlife trying to nibble on some of what’s illegally discarded in our wilderness areas.
One of the things that makes Cowichan Lake such a special spot is that it is still so close to nature. We see elk and bears and all manner of other creatures as a matter of course.
Living so close to nature also comes with responsibilities to it. We have to live with it, not just drop ourselves down in the middle of it and believe only it has to adapt to us.
That means things being bear aware, and doing a little elk proofing in the fall.
It’s well worth the price.