Our last puzzler was a sound clue, from a bugling ELK. Have you ever heard one? It’s definitely a sound and spectacle worth traveling for, and if you’re ever in an area where elk live I highly recommend it. Think Yellowstone, Rocky Mountain National Park or in the east, Great Smoky Mountains National Park as well as many other less-known places in Wyoming, Idaho and Colorado.
Know how they make that sound? Well according to EstesPark.com, “It turns out there are two forces at work. Use your binoculars to take a look at a bugling male – you’ll see that he is moving both his lips and his nostrils. That’s right: he’s roaring and whistling simultaneously. And voila, you’ve got the famous elk bugle.” It’s impressive when you’re standing in a frost-covered field, the fog rolling all around you and the sound of bugling elk echoing in the quiet morning hours. And when two of them lock antlers it takes impressive to a whole new level.
Male elk can weigh as much as 700 pounds and their HUGE antlers can weigh 40 pounds! Amazinging the males grow new antlers every year, shedding the old ones during the winter. Rodents will chew on the discarded antlers, getting much-needed calcium and other minerals and eventually making the entire antler disappear. Biologists have even observed other larger animals like wolves, bears, coyotes, and otter chewing on the shed bones. Did you know antlers are FAST growing, adding as much as one inch each day! In fact, they are the fastest growing tissue of any mammal!
Ready for another puzzler? This one is MUCH smaller, and also closer to my home in Western North Carolina. You know the song It’s Raining Men? Well this scene makes me think of that song. It’s a video that makes me think of rain, even through it is NOT rain. Can you tell what it is that’s “raining” down in the forest?