Love Makes Animals Do Weird Things During The Wyoming Rut
We all know the four seasons are Spring, Summer, Fall and Winter. If you're a hunter, there's spring, summer, RUT, Fall and Winter. That's how is should be, right?
You've heard that love makes you do stupid things and that's the god's honest truth. When you're in love, your brain goes through changes by releasing high levels of dopamine. This chemical is what makes you feel all tingly and giddy.
It's not just humans that go through this change, animals do to. During rut, which is mating season for animals, the brains of animals like, deer, antelope, bison and elk go all mushy with love and the desire to mate.
If you're not a hunter, not only does the rut happen in the fall of the year, so does hunting season. During the rut the animals are more active, especially during the day, giving hunters more of an opportunity to harvest the animal. This gives the hunters a better chance to fill their freezer and provide for their family.
Just like humans, when an animal falls "in love", they start doing some crazy things.
Crazy is the name of the game especially during the Elk rut. The bulls (male) start trying to show off for the ladies by challenging other bulls to a fight...just like humans.
Bulls become very vocal and start bugling to call in their potential mating partners.
They'll wallow in mud to cover themselves in their own urine to attract cows
Sometimes they get so worked up and excited, they pee in their own face...I know, I know, it seems weird, but you never know what a boy will do when he's looking for love.
Bull elk will spend much of the rut mating, with the potential of one bull servicing up to 40 cows.