The clip begins with a mature male elk doing its best to walk across a slick river. The elk is clearly struggling, and the risk is immense. Although the location is beautiful, the crossing is extremely dangerous, especially for creatures with hooves. The man filming is a few hundred feet downriver but has a great view of the elk as it crosses. Slowly testing its footing, the male elk makes its way across the slick rocks. Eventually, it makes it across to the other side… only to slip right at the end! Tumbling down the natural waterslide, the massive animal travels maybe 50 feet before hitting a mossy hill and stopping. Although the fall was far, it didn’t seem to hurt the creature all that much. Once the male elk finished its near-deadly crossing, however, it was time for the female elk to try. Sadly, the female didn’t make it as far as the male did. We can see the second elk start in the same spot that the male did, only it is clearly struggling more with the crossing than its partner was. Only making it a quarter of the way across, the female elk tries to step across a bit of moving water, only to step directly into it. The rush of water pushes the elk’s feet to the side, sending her sliding down. At first, it seems like the female is going to recover in the same way that the male did, but she instead just keeps speeding up. Finally, the female elk slid past any hope of safety and hits the point of no return—a natural ramp ending in a jagged rock ledge. In seconds, the elk barrels down the rocks and shoots into the air. With a smash, it slams down into the rocks, instantly dying. The audio makes things worse, as the sounds of the elk’s body hitting repeatedly hitting the rocks on the way down are unmistakable. Sadly, it’s evident that the animal died on impact. Although it’s unfortunate, it’s a much easier way to go than to be injured for the next few days. For the man filming, it was quite a shock. When you go out for a hike, you generally expect to enjoy nature, but never like this! As the many expletives (bleeped out) used in the video might show, the man filming was still amazing that he got the entire thing on camera.
Make sure you check out the full video below!
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