Wired

[mozey]

Last month while hiking up a canyon that had an old telephone line strung through, I noticed the line was down and touching the ground in a few places. I didn't think much of it, until I came upon a pile of elk bones in the bottom of a drainage.

I followed the trail of bones about 80 yards up the slope to make a grizzly discovery:

The other end of the wire was wrapped around a tree about 30' further up the mountain.

Bummer.

 

[BIGBULL48]

I was along with a friend to hunt for buffalo in the Henry mountains, I saw two pieces of rolled up barb wire (that had been rolled around buff horn). There were no barb wire fences close and they must have carried them a long way before they slid off.
This poor bull couldn't slide the wire past his tines. Not a pleasant way to go. A big bull should go down fighting or by a hunter that's out witted him on his own turf, not starvation.

 

[BBB]

I wasn't there to see the situation so I could be WAY off, but could it have been where someone wired (baling wire?) to pull the elk from below. It is a popular practice around here to get an elk carcass out of the bottom of some deep hole. It would be a bit strange they left the head. Looks like it may have died in the velvet?...

 

[mozey]

LAST EDITED ON Jun-23-08 AT 07:11PM (MST)[p]Good call on the "died in the velvet." There was still bits of hide and tissue on some of the bones, so I thought it was unusual that his horns were already completely chewed off. Didn't consider the velvet possibility.

Otherwise, I think that the random way that the wire is strung around is not indicative of someone trying to pull it. Also, the mostly likely way out of there would have been down hill and in the opposite direction of pulling him in the direction the uphill would take him.